SURUC, Turkey — Fierce fighting Monday between the Islamic State militant group and Kurdish forces just over the border in Syria brought the battle closer to Turkey, triggering a surge of tens of thousands of refugees and raising pressure for the government to increase efforts to take on the Sunni extremists.
Turkey is resisting because it fears that arming Kurdish men to fight the group could complicate peace talks with Turkish insurgents within its own borders.
The Islamic State group’s offensive against the Syrian city of Kobani, a few miles from the border, has sent 130,000 refugees to seek safety in Turkey in the past few days.
The conflict in Syria already had led to more than 1 million people flooding over the border in the past 3½ years.
