PYD co-leader, former US ambassador meet for talks on Kobane

 

By Mahmoud Yaseen Kurdi

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The co-leader of Syrian Kurds met with former US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, reportedly to discuss further military coordination to push out the Islamic State (ISIS) from the embattled city of Kobane.

Monday’s talks came amid intensified attacks on ISIS locations in Kobane, where Kurdish forces supported by the US-led coalition’s airpower have recaptured some districts of the war-torn city from the jihadist militants.

Sources told Rudaw that the meeting, at the Divan Hotel in Erbil, was about further military coordination against ISIS.

The PYD’s military wing, the People’s Protections Units, has resisted an ISIS overrun of Kobane since mid-September, joined in late October by some 150 Peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Region.

Khalilzad is a veteran US diplomat with good relations with Kurdish leaders in Iraq.

Last month, Syria’s Kurdish factions reached an agreement at a meeting in the Kurdistan Region over how to run the administration in Syrian Kurdistan, called Rojava by Kurds.  The meeting was hosted by Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and attended by top US diplomatic and security officials.