SURUC: A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani yesterday to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied US air strikes and threatened to massacre its Kurdish defenders.
Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been encircled by the Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than 40 days. Weeks of US-led air strikes have failed to break their stranglehold, and Kurds are hoping the arrival of the peshmerga will turn the tide.
The siege of Kobani — known in Arabic as Ayn Al Arab — has become a test of the US-led coalition’s ability to stop Islamic State’s advance, and Washington has welcomed the peshmerga’s deployment. It intensified its air strikes in the past two days ahead of their arrival.
A first contingent of about 10 peshmerga fighters arrived in Kobani from Turkey, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish and Turkish officials said more were expected within hours.
“That initial group, I was told, is here to carry out the planning for our strategy going forward,” said Meryem Kobane, a commander with the YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town.
Hemin Hawrami, a senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq, wrote on Twitter that the peshmerga already in Kobani were assessing where heavy weapons would be deployed.
Around 100 peshmerga fighters arrived by plane in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, joined later that night by a land convoy of vehicles carrying heavy weapons including a cannon and truck-mounted machine guns.
US Central Command said US forces had staged 10 air strikes on Islamic State targets near Kobani since Wednesday, hitting two small insurgent units and destroying seven fighting positions and five buildings.
Syria condemned Turkey for allowing foreign fighters and “terrorists” to enter Syria in a violation of its sovereignty. Its foreign ministry described the move as a “disgraceful act”.
Turkey, which is a staunch backer of rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, dismissed the comments.
“The Syrian regime has no legitimacy. Such statements from a regime that has lost its legitimacy are astonishing,” a senior Turkish government official said.
Around 200 Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters have also entered Kobani from Turkey to support the fight against Islamic State, according to rebel commander Abdul Jabbar Al Oqaidi and a second Turkish government official.
REUTERS
