A general view is seen of Ain Issa in the suburb of Raqqa, eastern Syria September 13, 2013. REUTERS/Nour Fourat

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish fighters have recaptured more than 10 villages seized by Islamic State north of its de facto capital of Raqqa city, aided by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday.

Intensified air strikes across northern Syria and clashes on the ground have killed at least 78 Islamic State fighters since Sunday night, the Britain-based Observatory said.

The strikes are some of the most sustained since they began in September, according to U.S. officials who say they are aimed at curbing the militants' ability to operate out of Raqqa and to prevent it from fighting back against Kurdish advances.

But, on Tuesday, the ultra-hardline group was still in control of Ain Issa, the Observatory said. The town, 50 km (30 miles) north of Raqqa city, was seized by Islamic State fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia in an attack on Monday.

That attack on YPG-held areas followed an intensification of air strikes on Raqqa city over the weekend, which U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday were aimed at disrupting the militants' ability to respond to YPG advances north of Raqqa.

The YPG, a militia operating mostly in predominantly Kurdish areas of northern Syria towards the Turkish border, has emerged as the only significant partner in Syria for U.S.-led alliance fighting to tackle Islamic State both there and in Iraq.

The Observatory, a British-based organization reporting on Syria's four-year-old civil war, said the coalition had played an "effective role" in helping YPG forces recover 11 villages northeast of Ain Issa.

The YPG, backed by small Syrian rebel groups, has made significant gains against Islamic State in Raqqa province in recent weeks, seizing Tel Abyad at the Turkish border on June 15 before advancing south to Ain Issa.

The YPG captured Ain Issa on June 23.

While the YPG has shown itself to be a potent force in the fight against Islamic State, its effectiveness is seen to diminish beyond the predominantly Kurdish areas it was set up to defend in northern and northeastern Syria.

The United States aims to train and equip Syrian rebel fighters it deems politically moderate in order to fight Islamic State in Syria. But the Pentagon said on June 18 the effort was moving more slowly than expected.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday the United States would do more to train and equip "the moderate opposition".

(Writing by Tom Perry and Sylvia Westall; Editing by Louise Ireland)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ten years ago, a small group of Palestinian activists had a novel idea: Inspired by the anti-apartheid movement, they called for a global boycott movement against Israel as a nonviolent method to promote the Palestinian struggle for independence.

Long confined to the sidelines, the so-called BDS movement appears to be gaining momentum — so much so that Israel has identified it as a strategic threat on a par with Palestinian militant groups and the Iranian nuclear program. While Israel says the movement is rooted in anti-Semitism, its decentralized organization and language calling for universal human rights have proven difficult to counter, resulting in a string of recent victories that have alarmed Israeli leaders.

"We are now beginning to harvest the fruits of 10 years of strategic, morally consistent and undeniably effective BDS campaigning," said Omar Barghouti, one of the group's co-founders. "BDS is winning the battles for hearts and minds across the world, despite Israel's still hegemonic influence among governments in the U.S. and Europe."

The BDS movement — named for its call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel — began as an idea by 170 Palestinian civil society groups worldwide in 2005. It has grown into a global network of thousands of volunteers lobbying corporations, artists and academic institutions to sever ties with Israel.

Its members include campus activists, church groups and even liberal American Jews disillusioned by Israeli policies.

Most worrying for Israel, some of the group's core positions toward products made in West Bank settlements are starting to be embraced by European governments. Although the EU says it opposes boycotts of Israel, it is exploring guidelines for labeling settlement products, which many in Israel fear could be a precursor to a full-fledged ban. Settlement products, which make up a tiny percentage of Israeli exports, include wines, dates and cosmetics.

At a time when peace efforts are frozen and show no sign of getting back on track under a new hard-line government, Israelis fear such sentiment will increase.

"The concern is that there will be a spillover to a much wider phenomenon that will become mainstream and erode support for Israel," said Emmanuel Nahshon of Israel's Foreign Ministry.

The BDS movement has three goals: to end Israel's occupation of territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war, to end discrimination suffered by Arab citizens of Israel, and to promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to family properties lost in the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

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FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 file photo, a poster calling people to boycott Israeli produ …

For Israel, this last position is nothing less than a call for its destruction. Israel opposes the Palestinian "right of return," saying a massive influx of refugees would mean the end of the country as a Jewish state. The international community favors a "two-state solution" creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated willingness to compromise on the refugee issue under a final peace deal.

Barghouti, a U.S.-educated engineer who also holds a graduate degree at Israel's Tel Aviv University, said the BDS movement is "completely neutral" on the political solution to the conflict. But he said he represents the Palestinian "consensus," and any deal that "undermines our basic rights under international law and perpetuates the colonial oppression" is unacceptable.

As for his attendance at a university he asks others to boycott, he said Palestinians "cannot possibly observe the same boycott guidelines as asked of internationals," adding that the "indigenous population" is entitled to all services they can get from the system.

Israeli leaders consider the movement to be the latest in a history of antagonists out to destroy the Jewish people.

"We are in the midst of a great struggle being waged against the state of Israel, an international campaign to blacken its name," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently. "It is not connected to our actions. It is connected to our very existence."

The BDS movement is led by a West Bank-based national committee with representatives from around the world, which sets guidelines but allows local branches to decide their own strategy. It focuses on battles with a reasonable chance of success. So some of the biggest companies active in Israel, such as Microsoft and Intel, have not been targeted.

Battles have taken place in U.S. food co-ops and city councils. The movement has helped organize several boycotts by U.S. and British academic unions and has made inroads on American campuses. Roughly a dozen student governments have approved divestment proposals.

Entertainers, including Roger Waters, Elvis Costello and Lauryn Hill have refused to perform in Israel. The BDS movement also claims responsibility for pressuring some large companies to stop or alter operations in Israel, including carbonated drink maker SodaStream, French construction company Veolia and international security firm G4S.

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FILE - In this Monday, April 20, 2015 file photo, an Egyptian wears a T-shirt with a logo of BDS (bo …

Last month, Britain's national student union joined the movement. Last week, the top legislative body of the United Church of Christ voted to divest from companies with business in the Israeli-occupied territories, following a similar move by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) last year. The Episcopal Church and Mennonite Church USA also considered divestment proposals recently, with the Episcopalians rejecting it and the Mennonites deferring action for two years.

Perhaps the biggest blow was last month's announcement by the chief executive of French mobile phone giant Orange that he wanted to end his partnership with Israeli carrier Partner Communications. He cited his desire to improve business in the Arab world. Although CEO Stephane Richard later traveled to Israel to apologize, Orange and Partner announced plans to unwind their deal.

The idea of boycotts is extremely sensitive in Israel. Netanyahu has referred to the Nazis' boycott of Jewish businesses and artists in 1930s Germany before the Holocaust — though that campaign took place when the Nazi party held power and was accompanied by acts of violence and virulent anti-Semitic slogans.

"The attacks on the Jews were always preceded by the slander of the Jews," Netanyahu recently said.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Arab countries pressured companies doing business with them to shun Israel. Currently, Israel is fending off attempts by the boycotters to compare Israeli policies in the West Bank to South African apartheid.

BDS activists deny being fueled by anti-Semitism, saying their battle is against Israel, not Jews. They point to a small but growing number of Jewish supporters, including the U.S.-based "Jewish Voice for Peace," whose 9,000 dues-paying members support a boycott of Israel.

Naomi Dann, JVP's media coordinator, said the stance stems from frustration over failed U.S.-backed peace efforts. She said that while the group recognizes the Jewish attachment to Israel, it can't come at the expense of Palestinians.

"It's not about destroying Israel," she said. "But full equal rights and a democratic society are more important than preserving the Jewish character of the state."

It remains difficult to quantify the BDS movement's actual achievements.

Leading global companies, including Microsoft, Google, Apple and Intel, maintain operations in Israel. Major entertainers, including Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Rihanna, have performed in Israel in recent years.

A February report by Israel's Finance Ministry concluded the BDS movement has had a negligible economic impact. But it outlined some worst-case scenarios, including EU government-led boycotts or cancellation of free-trade agreements. Likewise, a recent study by the Rand Corp. said that while the BDS movement "has not yet had a significant negative effect" on Israel, it is growing and Israeli leaders fear it could have "substantial detrimental effects" on the economy.

Last month, Jewish billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban led a Las Vegas fundraiser to fight the BDS movement at U.S. universities. Israel's justice minister, Ayeled Shaked, instructed her ministry to prepare "legal steps" against the movement. This week, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said she opposed the BDS movement.

David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former member of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's peace team, said Israel must show it is serious about the creation of a Palestinian state to slow the momentum.

"You can reduce its scope, its impact by making clear when the prime minister ... says he supports two states for two people that he is not then going to say Israel will settle in what will be a future Palestinian state," he said.

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Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed to this report.

Guards walk through a damaged gate of the house of Brigadier Khaled al-Anduli, an army commander loyal to the Houthi movement, after it was hit by Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen's capital Sanaa July 6, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

By Mohammed Gobari

SANAA (Reuters) - Saudi-led coalition air strikes and clashes killed at least 176 fighters and civilians in Yemen on Monday, residents and media run by the Houthi movement said, the highest daily toll since the Arab air offensive began more than three months ago.

The United Nations has been pushing for a halt to air raids and intensified fighting that began on March 26. More than 3,000 people have been killed since then as the Arab coalition tries stop the Houthis spreading across the country from the north.

The Iran-allied Shi'ite Houthis say they are rebelling against a corrupt government, while local fighters say they are defending their homes from Houthi incursions. Sunni Saudi Arabia says it is bombing the Houthis to protect the Yemeni state.

On Monday, about 63 people were killed in air strikes on Amran province in the north, among them 30 people at a market, Houthi-controlled state media agency Saba said.

In the same province, about 20 fighters and civilians were killed at a Houthi checkpoint outside the main city, also named Amran, about 50 km (30 miles) northwest of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, local residents said.

Arab alliance war planes also killed about 60 people at a livestock market in the town of al-Foyoush in the south.

Also in the south, residents reported a further 30 killed in a raid they said apparently targeted a Houthi checkpoint on the main road between Aden and Lahj. They said 10 of the dead were Houthi fighters.

Tribal sources in the central desert province of Marib said about 20 Houthi fighters and soldiers fighting alongside them were killed in air raids and gun battles with tribal fighters, who support Yemen's president in exile Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

On Tuesday, U.N. envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed continues meetings with Houthi officials in Sanaa to try to broker a ceasefire to allow aid deliveries. One Houthi official said Monday's attacks had dealt a blow to peace efforts.

"Even as the U.N. envoy is present, there are a hundred martyrs and hundreds of wounded ... No truce, no retreat, no surrender. Forward, forward heroes of Yemen, for victory is coming," Yahya Ali al-Qahoom wrote on his Twitter account.

Neither side has offered concessions as civil war rages.

Fighting, bombing and a near-blockade by the Arab coalition has deepened suffering in what is one of the poorest countries in the region.

The U.N. says more than 80 percent of Yemen's 25 million people need some form of humanitarian aid.

"(There is) a quite catastrophic situation we are facing today after three months of hostilities," Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen, told a U.N. briefing in Geneva by telephone from Sanaa.

"It's more than one million people displaced, 3,000 killed, shortage of fuel, basic public services - health, water, sanitation - that are collapsing, one city after another that are collapsing," he said.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Dubai and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Louise Ireland)

By Paul Taylor and Renee Maltezou

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras launched a desperate bid to win fresh aid from skeptical creditors at an emergency euro zone summit on Tuesday, before his country's banks run out of money.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on arrival there was still no basis for reopening negotiations with Athens.

"It is not a matter of weeks but of a few days" to save Greece from collapse, Merkel told reporters.

With Greek banks down to their last few days of cash and the European Central Bank tightening the noose on their funding, Tsipras tried to convince the bloc's other 18 leaders, many of whom are exasperated with five years of crisis, to authorize a new loan swiftly.

Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said after conferring on Monday in Paris that the door was still open to a deal to save Greece from plunging into economic turmoil and ditching the euro.

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A street vendor reacts as as she sits behind used items for sale in central Athens, Greece, July 7, …

Merkel, under pressure in Germany to cut Greece loose, made clear it was up to Tsipras to present convincing proposals after Athens spurned tax rises, spending cuts and pension and labor reforms that were on the table before its 240 billion euro ($262.7 billion) bailout expired last week.

Euro zone finance ministers complained that their new Greek colleague Euclid Tsakalotos, while more courteous than his abrasive predecessor Yanis Varoufakis, had brought no new proposals to a preparatory meeting before the summit.

"I have the strong impression there were 18 ... ministers of finance who felt the urgency of the situation and there is one ... who doesn't feel the urgency of the situation," Belgian Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt said.

Greek officials said the leftist government broadly repeated a reform plan Tsipras sent to the euro zone last week before Greek voters, in a referendum on Sunday, overwhelmingly rejected the austerity terms previously on offer for a bailout.

Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb said Greece would submit a formal request for a loan from the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund within a few hours.

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Newly appointed Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (C) is welcomed by Eurogroup President Jero …

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the "Eurogroup" of common currency finance ministers, said the finance ministers would hold another conference call on Wednesday to review the Greek request for a medium-term assistance program.

Reflecting the irritation of several ministers, he said the Eurogroup was still awaiting a Greek letter with one clear set of proposals.

A Greek government official retorted: "Some are maintaining 'we don't have proposals'... Is it really that 'we don't have proposals' or is it that they don't like our proposals?"

Tsipras was to meet jointly with the leaders of Germany and France, the currency area's main powers, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker before the summit begins at 6 p.m. (1200 ET).

WORKING TO EXCLUDE GREECE?

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A pensioner leans against the main gate of the national bank of Greece as he waits to withdraw a max …

Earlier Juncker, who has tried to broker a last-minute deal, told the European Parliament: "There are some in the European Union who openly or secretly are working to exclude Greece from the euro zone."

He did not name names but may have been referring to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has made no secret of his scepticism about Greece's fitness to stay in the euro and last week suggested a possible "temporary" exit.

From the Greek side, the key to making any deal politically acceptable will be to secure a stronger commitment from Merkel and other lenders to reschedule Greece's giant debt burden, which the International Monetary Fund says is unsustainable.

Without some firmer pledge of debt relief, neither Greece nor the IMF is likely to accept a deal. But that may be more than Germany and its northern allies can swallow.

Schaeuble said on arrival that anyone who had read the EU treaty knew debt write-offs were forbidden in the euro zone. He did not rule out other forms of restructuring.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande want serious proposals from G …

At stake is more than just the future of Greece, a nation of 11 million that makes up just 2 percent of the euro zone's economic output and population. If Greek banks run out of money and the country has to print its own currency, it could mean a state leaving the euro for the first time since it was launched in 1999. The precedent could raise risk for other countries.

Yet even in France, one of the euro zone countries most sympathetic to Athens, an opinion poll published on Tuesday showed one in two people want Greece to leave the euro zone.

TSIPRAS STRENGTHENED AT HOME

Strengthened by the overwhelming 61.3 percent 'No' vote in Sunday's referendum, the leftist Tsipras won the unprecedented support of all other Greek party leaders on Monday.

But he gave little clue of what reform concessions he would make to try to convince deeply skeptical European leaders to lend Athens more money after five months of acrimonious and fruitless negotiations with his leftist administration.

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A man rubs his head while browsing his smartphone outside a brokerage house in Beijing Tuesday, July …

Even with the country on the brink of economic collapse, Greek officials said the government was still seeking exceptions from its reform pledges to protect special interests.

Athens wants to keep a 30 percent discount on value added tax on Greek islands and delay defense spending cuts. It is also resisting raising VAT on restaurants to 23 percent, and wants to wait until 2019 to phase out an income supplement for poorer pensioners, officials said.

Juncker told EU lawmakers he was working night and day to get negotiations reopened and chided the Greeks for their aggressive attitude, saying it was unacceptable to accuse the EU of behaving like "terrorists", as Varoufakis did last week.

European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny suggested the bank might be able to provide some sort of bridge funding while Greece negotiated a longer-term conditional loan to see it over a crucial July 20 bond redemption to the ECB.

But one of his hardline ECB colleagues, Ilmars Rimsevics of Latvia, said Greece had effectively voted itself out of the euro and issuing a second currency was the most likely next step.

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Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, center, leaves after a meeting with Greek political part …

An ECB policy paper said the central bank could not be overly generous with emergency funding nor provide liquidity on insufficient collateral.

A bank closure in force since the talks collapsed was prolonged until Thursday at least, and cash withdrawals remain limited to 60 euros a day, with 20 euro notes running out.

The Athens stock exchange was also ordered closed for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday to throttle speculation.

($1 = 0.9137 euros)

(Additional reporting by Costas Pitas, Angeliki Koutantou and George Georgiopoulos in Athens, Julia Fioretti and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels, Paul Carrel in Berlin John O'Donnell in Frankfurt and Mark John in Paris; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Peter Graff)

SEAHORSE KEY, Fla. (AP) — The din created by thousands of nesting birds is usually the first thing you notice about Seahorse Key, a 150-acre mangrove-covered dune off Florida's Gulf Coast.

But in May, the key fell eerily quiet all at once.

Thousands of little blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans and other chattering birds were gone. Nests sat empty in trees; eggs broken and scattered on the muddy ground.

"It's a dead zone now," said Vic Doig, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "This is where the largest bird colony on the Gulf Coast of Florida used to be."

For decades, Seahorse Key has been a protected way station for myriad bird species. It's part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1929 as a sanctuary for birds devastated by decades of hunting for their colorful plumage. Accessible only by boat, today it's a rare island off Florida not dominated by human activity and development.

When the birds come to nest, so too do biologists and naturalists who study the different colonies. But this year, the birds' exit has the state's avian biologists scrambling for answers.

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In this Friday, June 19, 2015 photo, a variety of birds gather in branches at Snake Key, Fla. near S …

"It's not uncommon for birds to abandon nests," said Peter Frederick, a University of Florida wildlife biologist who has studied Florida's birds for nearly 30 years. "But, in this case, what's puzzling is that all of the species did it all at once."

Doig said some of the Seahorse birds seem to have moved to a nearby island, but they're just a fraction of the tens of thousands of birds that would normally be nesting on the key right now.

To find answers, service biologists have been acting on the few clues they have.

First, they tested left-behind bird carcasses for disease or contaminants. Those tests came back negative.

Next, they researched possible new predators. Did raccoons swim over from another island? Perhaps some great horned owls flew out at night and started feasting?

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In this Friday, June 19, 2015 photo, tricolored herons perch in tree branches on Snake Key, Fla. jus …

Traps caught a few raccoons, which is common, but not enough to have created a wholesale abandonment. There were no telltale signs of owls.

Finally, Doig said, recent years have seen an increase in night flights over the area by surveillance planes and helicopters used to combat drug runners. Although the planes' noise could be disruptive, Doig admits it's a longshot.

The abandonment concerns biologists because it could have a ripple effect: Many bird species here return year after year to the same nesting sites. The disruption provokes anxiety that this important island refuge could somehow be lost.

"Any rookery that's persisted for decades as one of the largest colonies is incredibly important," said Janell Brush, an avian researcher with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "It's quite a large colony. There had to be some intense event that would drive all these birds away."

Biologist also don't know how the disappearance will affect the island's other animals, some of which rely on the birds to survive. Cottonmouth snakes eat bird predators like rodents, and in turn the birds drop lots of fish and other nutrients from the trees to feed the snakes.

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In this Friday, June 19, 2015 photo, several ospreys perch on a signpost at Seahorse Key, Fla. off F …

In the meantime, tour operators that once spent hours taking naturalists and bird watchers to the island are making other plans.

Mike O'Dell runs tours out of the little marina in nearby Cedar Key. He said on a Tuesday in May he led a group out to view thousands of birds crowding the shores of the key. On Wednesday, there was nothing.

"It's just that drastic," O'Dell said. "There were none. It's like a different world."

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Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen