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Kurdish fighters backed by US-led coalition airstrikes were locked in fierce fighting on Wednesday to prevent a key Syrian border town falling into the hands of ISIL militants.
It came as 41 children were reported dead in twin bombings that hit a school in the government-controlled central city of Homs, which has been devastated by the three-year civil war.
Turkey deployed 35 armored vehicles, including at least a dozen tanks, to the border with Syria on Monday as Islamist extremists closed in on the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane, raining shells from two directions.
At least two mortar rounds landed on the Turkish side of the border, but it was unclear whether Turkey would intervene to prevent the capture of the city, which was under heavy bombardment Monday night. At least 160,000 Syrian refugees, with more waiting to cross, have entered Turkey in the past week as the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, pushed toward the city.
Kurdish Peshmerga troops launched offensives against the Islamic State jihadist group on three fronts in northern Iraq on Tuesday, senior officers told AFP.
Troops struck before dawn against a town on the Syrian border, north of jihadist-controlled second city Mosul, and south of key oil hub Kirkuk, the commanders said.
Iraqi pro-government forces have repelled an offensive of Isis jihadists in Amriyat al-Falluja, almost 40 km west of Baghdad.
After midnight Isis fighters launched an attack on two fronts and clashes lasted 5 hours.
The Al-Nusra Front made a series of demands from the Lebanese authorities on Saturday; the Lebanese are negotiating conditions for the release of their captive troops, reports Al Arabiya News.
Around 30 Lebanese soldiers were captured last month while fighting in the town of Arsal near the Syrian border. The Islamic group has already killed three of their captives, the source informed.