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.
Islamic State militants have killed 85 more members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Iraq, in a killing campaign launched last week in retaliation for resistance against the group's territorial advances, a tribal leader and security official told Reuters.
Sheikh Naeem al-Ga'oud, one of the tribe's leaders, said Islamic State killed 50 displaced members of Albu Nimr on Friday. In a separate incident, a security official said 35 bodies were found in a mass grave.
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.