Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers Wednesday approved the deployment of security forces to the Syrian border town of Kobane to help Kurds battling jihadists from the Islamic State group, the parliament speaker said.

"The Kurdistan parliament decided to send forces to Kobane with the aim of supporting the fighters there and protecting Kobane," Yusef Mohammed Sadeq said, according to footage of the session.

The jailed leader of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said he saw a better chance for a peace deal with Ankara, despite Kurdish protests over Turkish inaction in Syria.

"My hopes over a successful execution in this process have been increased," Abdullah Ocalan said in a message relayed on Tuesday by pro-Kurdish lawmakers who visited him in his prison on the island of Imrali near Istanbul.

Turkey said Tuesday Kurdish peshmerga fighters based in Iraq have yet to cross into Syria from Turkish territory, a day after announcing it was assisting their transit to join the battle for the town of Kobane.

"The peshmerga have yet to cross from Turkey to Kobane and this issue is still being discussed," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told NTV television, without giving further details.

"It was as if we were in the middle of a war zone," said 22-year-old drama student Aslihan Celebi as she described the scene of a violent anti-jihadist protest at Istanbul University.

The university has in the last few weeks been the center of violent clashes between leftist students denouncing the brutality of Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the group's sympathizers.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu unveiled Tuesday details of a sweeping security reform branded as repressive by critics, saying those in possession of banned objects at protests would face up to four years in jail.

The changes were first announced last week by the Islamic-rooted government following deadly protests in Istanbul and the Kurdish-majority southeast over Turkey's Syria policy.

"It was as if we were in the middle of a war zone," said 22-year-old drama student Aslihan Celebi as she described the scene of a violent anti-jihadist protest at Istanbul University.

The university has in the last few weeks been the center of violent clashes between leftist students denouncing the brutality of Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the group's sympathizers.

Turkey on Tuesday launched a new operation to arrest top police officers suspected of involvement in illegal eavesdropping on senior officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The operation targeted 18 senior police figures in Ankara including the former head of national police intelligence, Omer Altiparmak, and the former deputy head of the Ankara police Lokman Kircili, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

A teenager who ran away from Australia to join jihadists in Iraq and Syria has reappeared months later in a video of the Islamic State group, vowing to "not stop fighting", reports said Tuesday.

The 17-year-old, named in local media as Abdullah Elmir but who calls himself "Abu Khaled", carried a rifle and directly addressed Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the video reportedly posted online, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

Kurdish fighters in the battleground Syrian town of Kobane weathered an onslaught by Islamic State group militants on Tuesday as they awaited promised reinforcements.

The Kurdish militia faced a fierce attack by IS fighters, including suicide bombers, late on Monday, that appeared aimed at cutting off the border with Turkey before any reinforcements could arrive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Turkey on Monday released the last group of Syrian Kurds who were being held on suspicion of having links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a local official said.

"The last 95 people were advised to go to a tent city having reported their contact details," local official Fatih Ciftci told AFP.