Kurdish forces took the strategic town after several days of intense fighting that sparked an exodus of more than 23,000 refugees into neighbouring Turkey.

Some 200 men, women and children carrying their meagre possessions gathered in front of the Turkish border post at Akcakale and were allowed through by the Turkish authorities.

They said that while they could not be sure of security, it was better to go home than risk becoming a refugee in a foreign country.

Mahmud, a farmer, said he wanted to be home for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan which starts this week.

"It's not so good here... It's not like home. We want to spend our holy Ramadan in our homeland. We have been looking forward to it."

Fahriye, 40, housewife, said she was afraid of air strikes from the US-led coalition and that IS could come back and try and retake the town.

"I'm returning, I left my husband there. But I'm still very afraid of the bombs, how would someone not be afraid of bombs?

"I'm also afraid of IS coming back. I'll go and decide with my family whether we'll stay or not," she said.

The Kurds and their Syrian rebel allies launched a two-pronged attack on Tal Abyad on June 11, backed by air strikes by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

The new Kurdish victory, coming months after Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) drove the militants from Kobane, has alarmed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who warned Sunday of the "creation of a structure that threatens our borders".

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc also accused YPG fighters of "ethnic cleansing" in northern Syria as they drove IS back.

Ankara accuses the YPG -- the military wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- of being the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.