MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - At least 12 people have been killed as a result of clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in Turkey, the BBC reported Wednesday.
The protesters were expressing their dissatisfaction with the lack of action on Turkey's part in defending the border city of Kobani, Syria, currently being attacked by Islamic State (IS) militants.
The police have used tear gas and water cannons in several cities across the country to disperse the protests. Curfews were introduced in a number of Turkish cities, mostly in the southeast.
The BBC reported that at least 400 people have been killed over three weeks of fighting for Kobani, with some 160,000 Syrians fleeing the city.
UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has called on the international community to help prevent Kobani from falling under the militants' control.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is an extremist group that has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate on the territories under its control.
The US-led coalition has carried out airstrikes on the extremists but the siege of the city has continued.
