AKGAKALE: Turkey on Thursday closed its border post of Akcakale on the Syrian frontier, preventing Syrian refugees who had fled fighting in the town of Tal Abyad from returning home, an AFP correspondent reported.
Turkish security forces said they were not allowing refugees across because Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia has closed the gate on the other side of the border. But the YPG denied this was the case.
The YPG had earlier this week ousted Islamic State (IS) jihadists from Tal Abyad after fighting that prompted some 23,000 Syyrian refugees to flee into Turkey.
Hundreds of Syrians had returned home on Wednesday as calm returned to the town. But on Thursday the Turkish authorities were not allowing through some 200 waiting refugees.
They said they had been told that the border would not open until Monday, meaning they will miss celebrating the start of the holy fasting month of Ramzan at home.
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