ERBIL/SYRIA-TURKISH BORDER – Peshmerga troops are in the Syrian border town of Kobane and ready to confront the Islamic State (ISIS), a Peshmerga officer told Rudaw. An officer told Rudaw by phone that as of Saturday morning, the Peshmerga had yet to fight. “We were prepared to begin fighting right away,” he told Rudaw on condition of anonymity, “but YPG told us to settle in and prepare a number of things first,” referring to the local Kurdish fighters known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) who have held out with backing from US-led airstrikes. The soldiers, numbering some 150 and traveling with advanced weapons, moved to the border at 9 pm local time on Friday with a Turkish military escort, and crossed into Syria later that evening. The Iraqi Kurdish troops are the first foreign soldiers to be dispatched to the border town, which has been under an ISIS siege for more than 40 days. The Peshmerga’s entry into the city was prepared by US-led coalition airstrikes, which hit Islamic State (ISIS) positions before and after the Iraqi Kurdish troops were met by their Syrian counterparts. An advance team of 10-15 Peshmerga officers went into Kobane Wednesday afternoon to work out an entry strategy for their forces and meet with YPG commanders. “There is a remarkable cooperation between the Peshmerga forces and the YPG fighters, who seem very happy for the arrival of the Peshmerga troops,” said a Rudaw reporter with the Peshmerga forces in the village of Surcci, which borders Kobane. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which sent in 200 fighters into Kobane on Wednesday, said that a joint command center would be set up with the Peshmarga and YPG to repel any further ISIS advance into the embattled town, where most residents have fled.
