Iraqi Kurds head off to help Syrian brethren against ISIS
Dozens of Kurdish peshmerga fighters leave a base in northern Iraq on October 28, 2014, on their way to the battleground Syrian town of Kobani. SAFIN HAMED/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
IRBIL, Iraq - Dozens of Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga fighters are headed to Turkey on Tuesday and from there they will cross into the Syrian border town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds fight Muslim militants, a spokesman for the Kurdish force said.
According to the spokesman, Halgurd Hekmat, the peshmerga fighters are leaving from the city of Irbil, in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Last week, the local Iraqi Kurdish government authorized the peshmerga forces to go to neighboring Syria and help fellow Kurds combat Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants in Kobani. A total of 150 peshmerga fighters were authorized to go to Kobani through Turkey.
Turkey, which has riled Kurdish leaders and frustrated Washington by refusing to allow fighters or weapons into Kobani, said last week it would help Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria.
On Tuesday afternoon, a large peshmerga convoy with heavy weapons was seen in Irbil, driving towards the Iraqi Kurdish area of Dohuk.
The convoy was moving by land and it was not immediately clear if the fighters had left or would leave on a plane and the convoy would drive to Turkey.
Idriss Nassan, a Kurdish official from Kobani, told The Associated Press that they have no confirmation that peshmerga fighters were to arrive Tuesday. "We have no information other than what we are reading on social media or hearing on the news," Nassan said by telephone from Turkey.
He added that the peshmeraga command might have direct contact with the Syrian Kurdish force known as the Peoples' Protection Units, or YPG, and for that reason Kurdish politicians in Syria are not aware of the movement.
ISIS launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby villages in mid-September in battles that have killed more than 800 people, according to activists.
The extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and now also control parts of the town. The battles also made more than 200,000 people flee for safety across the border into Turkey.
An AP reporter on the Turkish side of the border facing Kobani said there were three airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition on Tuesday. Occasional shooting could be heard from the town.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the U.S.-led coalition carried out three airstrikes on Kobani in Tuesday, adding that they targeted a gathering of ISIS fighters.
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