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.
There are at least five Britons travelling to Iraq and Syria to join Islamic State (IS) every week, the UK's most senior police officer has said, adding that this is the minimum and there could be many more.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the militants' activities in those countries were "not just the horrors of distant lands" and warned of the terrorist threat posed at home by returning fighters.
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.