Kurdish Woman Shot Dead on Syria-Turkey Border

A Kurdish female activist was shot dead Thursday on the Syria-Turkey border near the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, allegedly by the Turkish security forces, reports said.

The pro-Kurdish Firat news agency said that Kader Ortakaya, 28, was killed when Turkish security forces opened fire using live ammunition on a protest at the border.

Witnesses who spoke to AFP confirmed there had been a fatal shooting but said the woman had been part of a group of Kurds who tried to cross over the border towards Kobane.

There was no statement on the incident from the Turkish army.

Ortakaya was described as a post-graduate student from Turkey's Sanliurfa region.

Since Islamic State (IS) jihadists started besieging Kobane, Turkey has taken in some 200,000 mainly Kurdish Syrian refugees from the region.

But it has prevented Kurdish activists from crossing the other way from Turkey to Syria, fearing the creation of a strong cross-border Kurdish militia.

The only exception has been the permission granted by Turkey for a contingent of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters to cross its soil to join the fight for Kobane.