SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Kurdish militiamen are putting up a fierce fight to defend a Syrian town near the border with Turkey but are struggling to repel the Islamic State group, which is advancing and pushing in from two sides, Syrian activists and Kurdish officials said Saturday.

The battle for Kobani is still raging despite more than two weeks of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting the militants in and around the town. The strikes, which are aimed at rolling back the militants' gains, appear to have done little to blunt their onslaught on Kobani, which began in mid-September.

Just outside the Turkish town of Suruc, across the border from Kobani, some 200 people gathered at a cemetery Saturday to bury two Kurdish fighters, a woman and a man, who died in the fighting.

The two fighters— 22-year-old Mujaid Ahmed and 20-year-old Fatma Sheikh Hassan — were laid to rest in two simple wooden coffins. Men took turns heaving shovels of dirt to cover the coffins as women wept. One woman kneeled over a freshly dug grave, tears streaming down her nose as others tried to console her.

Then, the crowd — which included Kurds from Suruc and others from Kobani — broke into song, ending the burial ceremony with chants of "Long live Kobani!"

The Syrian Kurdish border town is the latest focus of the Islamic State group, which has rampaged across northern Syria and western and northern Iraq since the summer, swallowing up large chunks of territory and imposing its reign of terror.

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Syrian Kurdish refugees shield themselves from rain after crossing into Turkey from the Syrian borde …

Capturing Kobani, also known by its Arabic name of Ayn Arab, would give the group a direct link between its positions in the Syrian province of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, to the east. It would also crush a lingering pocket of Kurdish resistance and give the group full control of a large stretch of the Turkish-Syrian border.

Kurds are determined not to allow Kobani to fall and are fighting zealously, but they have not been able to curb advances by the more heavily armed extremists.

On Friday, the militants seized the so-called Kurdish security quarter — an area in the town's east where Kurdish militiamen maintain security buildings and where the police station, municipality and other local government offices are located.

A senior Kurdish official, Ismet Sheikh Hasan, said clashes were focused in the southern and eastern parts of the town. He said the situation was dire and appealed for international help.

"We are defending (the town) but ... we have only simple weapons and they (militants) have heavy weapons," he said in a call Friday night with The Associated Press. "They are not besieged and can move easily."

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Syrian Kurdish refugees go about their lives outside their tents in a refugee camp in Suruc, on the …

A video posted online Saturday by a group affiliated with the militants showed what it said were Islamic State group militants fanning out in some streets of Kobani amid heavy gunfire. Militants are shown firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. The video appeared to be consistent with AP reporting on the battles.

U.S. Central Command said it conducted airstrikes north and south of Kobani over Friday and Saturday using fighter jets and bombers.

Hasan said U.S.-led airstrikes were not effective, and urged the international community and the United Nations to intervene, predicting a massacre if the militants seize control of Kobani. He also appealed to Turkey to open a corridor that would allow remaining civilians to leave Kobani and arms to enter the town.

Since the Islamic State group's offensive on Kobani started Sept. 16, more than 500 people have been killed, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The group, which collects its information from an elaborate network of activists on the ground, said it has documented 20 Kurdish civilians among them, as well as nearly 300 Islamic State militants and 225 Kurdish fighters.

The fighting also has forced more than 200,000 people to flee across the border into Turkey.

Hasan said the Turks were now allowing only wounded civilians to cross the border.

Rami Abdurrahman, the Observatory's chief, said the town's Kurdish fighters "are putting up a fierce fight" but are simply outgunned by the militants.

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Associated Press writers Mucahit Ceylan and Burak Sayin contributed to this report from Mursitpinar, Turkey.

LONDON (AP) — British counterterrorism forces are monitoring "thousands" of potential extremists in the capital's metropolitan area, London Mayor Boris Johnson said in a newspaper interview published Saturday, as police continue to question five men arrested on suspicion of terrorist offenses.

His comments came as police chiefs warned police officers throughout Britain to use extra care because of an increased threat to their personal safety

The Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted Johnson as saying the security forces in the London area are involved in "thousands of operations" every day. He said the number of people being watched is in the low thousands.

"In London we're very, very vigilant and very, very concerned," he said, adding that the national threat level had recently been raised. It is now listed as "severe," meaning an attack is viewed as highly likely.

Johnson's comments suggested the number of potential extremists is higher than had been previously believed. He said many of the estimated 500 fighters who had gone from Britain to Syria to support Islamic State group militants there had come from the greater London area — posing a security threat if they return after having received training in explosives and weapons use.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, a director of counterterrorism efforts, said the new warning to police officers about their safety was made because "the threat level to police officers and staff has been raised."

He said police are being asked to "remain vigilant and alert to any possible dangers."

Rowley didn't specify whether the increased threat to police is related to the arrests of the five men earlier this week.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case with the media, have said the men, aged 20 and 21, include one who recently returned from Syria. The officials said police are probing possible ties to the Islamic State group operating there.

The men, including one medical student, can be held for questioning until Oct. 14. That period could be extended under terrorism laws.

'Thousands' of possible extremists in London

Mayor Boris Johnson warns that there is still a real threat as five suspected terrorists are questioned.
Very 'vigilant' and 'concerned'

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group has executed at least four women, including two doctors and a politician, in their northern Iraq strongholds this month, relatives and rights activists said on Saturday.

In the IS hub of Mosul, the jihadists executed three women on Wednesday including two doctors, Hanaa Edwar, a human rights activist who heads the Al-Amal organisation, said.

A medical source in Mosul confirmed their deaths and named the two doctors as Maha Sabhan and Lamia Ismail. The third woman was a law graduate.

On October 5, Iman Mohammed Yunus, a former Sunni parliamentarian from the Iraq Turkmen Front in the city of Tal Afar, farther west towards the Syrian border, was also executed.

"They took her from her home last month and called her family this week to say that she had been executed," said Ali al-Bayati, who runs a foundation supporting the rights of Iraq's Turkmen minority.

"Then they dumped her body in a water well outside Tal Afar," he said.

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An image taken from a video released by Welayat Nineveh Media Office on August 9, 2014 allegedly sho …

According to Edwar, who confirmed Yunus' execution, at least four other women were executed by IS militants in the Mosul area in recent weeks.

Among them were a former candidate for the local council and an academic.

"Women are easy targets for them. Many of the rights activists from Mosul ran away but some of the women among them had to stay with their children," Edwar said.

IS militants have controlled Mosul since June 10, the second day of a major offensive that saw jihadist fighters seize swathes of land in five Iraqi provinces.

They have used the city, Iraq's second largest, as a de facto capital for the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" which their leadership proclaimed in June and also includes large parts of Syria.

"After going after the ethnic and religious minorities, they are now hunting down Sunni members of civil society groups and anyone remotely connected with the government," Edwar said.

She said IS was probably trying to sow maximum fear among the population by openly targeting women.

"When you abduct and kill women, you are really spreading horror," she said.

On September 22, IS executed a women's rights activist, Samira Saleh al-Nuaimi, reportedly because she had condemned the demolition of heritage sites by IS on social media.

Edwar also said two men, a judge and a deputy prosecutor, had been executed over the past two weeks.

A source at the Mosul morgue confirmed that their bodies had been brought in earlier this month.

Associated Press Videos
Hundreds Rally Against St. Louis Police Violence

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Thousands gathered Saturday for a second day of organized rallies and marches protesting Michael Brown's death and other fatal police shootings in the St. Louis area and elsewhere.

Marchers started assembling in the morning hours in downtown St. Louis, where later in the day the Cardinals were set to host the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Championship Series.

Spurred by a national campaign dubbed Ferguson October, a diverse crowd joined forces. Vietnam-era peace activists, New York City seminarians and hundreds of fast-food workers bused in from Chicago, Nashville and other cities marched alongside local residents.

Four days of events are planned. They started Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor's office in Clayton. Protesters renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old. A grand jury is reviewing the case and the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation.

"We still are knee deep in this situation," said Kareem Jackson, a St. Louis rap artist and community organizer whose stage name is Tef Poe. "We have not packed up our bags, we have not gone home. This is not a fly-by-night moment. This is not a made-for-TV revolution. This is real people standing up to a real problem and saying, 'We ain't taking it no more.'"

The downtown march came hours before the Cardinals game at Busch Stadium, just blocks from the protest route. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said the city had enlisted extra officers and was prepared for trouble, though he hoped for the best.

Protests After Off-duty St. Louis Cop Kills ManPlay video

Earlier in the week, a small group of protesters verbally clashed with Cardinals fans who support the Ferguson officer outside the stadium.

"What I ask is if people come to have their message heard, that they do it in a respectful way," Dotson said. "And the same thing on the other side (from police supporters). Everybody has a right to have their message heard, whether you like it or not."

He said the city also will bolster its police presence when the St. Louis Rams host the San Francisco 49ers in a nationally televised game Monday night — the same day protesters are planning organized acts of civil disobedience.

The crowd Saturday was significantly larger than the ones seen at Friday's protests in Ferguson and Clayton. While the main focus of the march was on recent police shootings, participants also embraced such causes as gay rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Police reported no arrests or violence Saturday afternoon.

"I have two sons and a daughter. I want a world for them where the people who are supposed to be community helpers are actually helping, where they can trust those people to protect and serve rather than control and repress," said Ashlee Wiest-Laird, 48, a Baptist pastor from Boston.

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Protesters march near the St. Louis Arch, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014, in St Louis. More than 1,000 gath …

The situation in Missouri especially resonated with Wiest-Laird. She's white and her adopted sons, ages 14 and 11, are black.

"What I see happening here is a moment in time. There's something bigger here," she said.

Organizers said beforehand that they expected as many as 6,000 to 10,000 participants for the weekend's events. Police were not able to provide a crowd estimate Saturday, but organizers and participants suggested the march's size may have approached as many as 3,000.

Since Brown's death, three other fatal police shootings of black males have occurred in the St. Louis area. The most recent happened Wednesday night on St. Louis' south side when police say an off-duty city officer working for a private neighborhood security patrol shot and killed 18-year-old Vonderrit D. Myers.

The white officer, whose name hasn't been released, fired 17 rounds after police say Myers opened fire. Myers' parents say he was unarmed.

Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State group poured in reinforcements Sunday for its nearly month-long siege of Kobane as the Syrian town's Kurdish defenders kept up their high-profile resistance.

IS has sustained serious losses in the battle for the town despite their superior armour, with at least 36 of its fighters killed on Saturday alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

With the world's press massed just across the nearby border with Turkey, the fight for the town has become one the jihadists cannot afford to lose, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

"It's a decisive battle for them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"If they don't pull it off, it will damage their image among jihadists around the world."

Abdel Rahman said that IS was sending additional fighters from other areas it controls in Syria, including its Euphrates Valley stronghold of Raqa, after its Friday capture of the Kurdish command headquarters in Kobane failed to deliver a decisive blow.

"They are sending fighters without much combat experience," said Abdel Rahman, whose group has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

"They are attacking on multiple fronts but they keep being repulsed, then countering and being pushed back again."