A convoy of Kurdish Peshmerga troops departed from Turkey in a convoy overnight to help bolster Syrian Kurds holding out against self-styled Islamic State militants in the besieged town of Kobani.
Islamic State combatants have been trying to capture Kobani, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.
IS militants have kidnapped and murdered a leading lawyer and human rights campaigner in the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to the Gulf Center for Human Rights.
Samira Saleh al-Naimi, known for her work defending the poor and detained of the region, was an outspoken critic of the militant group known as the Islamic State, which stormed the city in June.
A group of masked men kidnapped al-Naimi from her home last week after she publicly called IS "barbaric." On Monday, more masked men led her to a public square in Mosul and shot her dead, the GCHR said.
Satellite images have revealed the destruction in and around the town of Kobani, on the Syrian border.
Members of a prominent motorcycle gang from Holland have reportedly joined forces with Kurdish troops in Iraq to fight IS militants.
The sister of a UK journalist being held by Islamic State militants has appealed for his captors to reopen dialogue aimed at freeing him.