ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Media reports say police in Istanbul and at least six other Turkish cities clashed with hundreds of demonstrators protesting the Islamic State group’s advance on a Kurdish town on Syria’s border with Turkey.

The private Dogan news agency said Tuesday clashes broke out in several Istanbul neighborhoods overnight, as protesters set up barricades, hurled stones, fireworks and firebombs at police and set a bus on fire. One police officer was injured.

Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse similar protests in the mostly Kurdish-populated cities of Diyarbakir, Batman, Van, Sirnak, Sanliurfa and Hakkari.

Islamic State fighters, backed by tanks and artillery, have pushed into the embattled Syrian town of Kobani, touching off heavy street battles with the town’s Kurdish defenders.

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