BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition activists say extremists from the Islamic State group have seized key towns and villages near the border with Turkey after deadly clashes with other rebels in the area. 
 
 They say fighters of the group captured the towns of Akhtarin and Turkmanbareh in the Aleppo countryside Wednesday, dislodging other rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. They also took three nearby areas. 
 
 The towns are the latest prize for Islamic State militants, who have carved out a self-styled caliphate across vast swaths of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq. 
 
 The towns' takeover was reported by several activists, jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group on social media and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. ||||| PARIS (AP) — Calling the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan "catastrophic," France said Wednesday it would start supplying arms to the Kurdish forces fighting Sunni extremists from the Islamic State group. 
 
 An aircraft comes in to land at Britain’s Royal Air Force Base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. British Bases spokesperson Kristian Gray says a number of Tornado surveillance aircraft will... (Associated Press) 
 
 An aircraft comes in to land at Britain’s Royal Air Force Base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014. British Bases spokesperson Kristian Gray says a number of Tornado surveillance aircraft will... (Associated Press) 
 
 WIth Marines standing at attention, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel arrives at a Camp Pendleton hangar where addressed the Marines and answered questions Tuesday Aug. 12, 2014. Hagel announced the deployment... (Associated Press) 
 
 The sudden announcement that arms would begin to flow within hours underlined France's alarm at the urgency of the situation in Iraq, where the Islamic State fighters are threatening the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. 
 
 The shipment of French arms, which the government refused to describe, follows the United States' increased role in fighting back the Islamic State extremists. 
 
 Senior American officials say U.S. intelligence agencies are directly arming the Kurds, a shift in Washington's policy of only working through the Baghdad government. On Tuesday, 130 U.S. troops arrived in the Kurdish capital of Irbil on what the Pentagon described as a temporary mission to coordinate plans to help trapped Yazidi civilians on Sinjar Mountain. 
 
 France says its arms shipment was coordinated with the Iraqi government. 
 
 French authorities have pushed other European Union members to do more to aid Christian and other minorities being targeted by the Islamic State group extremists. A high-level EU diplomatic meeting late Tuesday ended with a statement that it would consider the Kurdish request for urgent military support "in close coordination with Iraqi authorities." 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, France had pledged to deliver a new 20-ton shipment of humanitarian aid including medicine, tents and water treatment equipment to Irbil later in the day. 
 
 The turmoil stems from the rapid advance of the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants across northern and western Iraq in June. The insurgency seized Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, and routed Iraq's beleaguered armed forces. Thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.5 million have been displaced by the violence.
– Another 130 Marines and special operations forces have been sent to Iraq to help rescue tens of thousands of Yazidi refugees still trapped on a mountain, but this "is not a combat boots on the ground kind of operation," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says. Speaking at California's Camp Pendleton, he described the extra American troops now in the northern city of Irbil as "assessment team members" who will assist the effort to help members of the Yazidi minority threatened by Islamic State extremists. A helicopter bringing supplies to people trapped on Mount Sinjar crashed yesterday after too many refugees climbed on board. More: As the plight of the refugees becomes increasingly desperate, American officials say a ground force may be necessary to get the refugees off the mountain, the New York Times reports. John Kerry says the 130 advisers will be tasked with finding a safe way out. "We will make a very rapid and critical assessment because we understand it is urgent to try to move those people off the mountain," he told reporters today. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, appears to have given up on trying to cling to power at any cost, the New York Times notes. He has told troops deployed in Baghdad not to intervene in the crisis—and officials say the military has told Maliki he no longer has their support. Insiders say discussions on Maliki stepping down are now focused on immunity from prosecution. New Iraqi President Fouad Massoum has chosen deputy parliament speaker Haider al-Ibadi as Maliki's replacement. France is sending arms in "coming hours" to Kurds fighting the Islamic State in a situation it calls "catastrophic," reports the AP. The move comes with Baghdad's blessing. Across the border in Syria, Islamic State militants have made fresh gains, reports the AP. Opposition activists say fighters have seized two key towns near the Turkish border after clashes with other rebel groups.