SYRIA-TURKISH BORDER – After three days of waiting at a Turkish camp, Peshmerga forces headed toward Kobane, the Syrian Kurdish town resisting an Islamic State (ISIS) takeover for weeks.
The troops, numbering some 150 and traveling with advanced weapons, left at 9 pm local time on Friday with a Turkish military escort.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency confirmed the Peshmerga were "moving toward the border," traveling in a convoy escorted by Turkish special forces and gendarme units. It said they were expected to cross into Kobane.
The Peshmerga will be the first foreign soldiers to be dispatched to the border town, which has been under an ISIS siege for more than 40 days. Local Kurdish fighters known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have held out with backing from US-led airstrikes.
An advance team of 10-15 Peshmerga officers went into Kobane Wednesday afternoon to work out an entry strategy for their forces.
“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.
“The Peshmarga await orders to enter the city with high morale,” the reporter said.
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.
Ebdulcebar Igedi, who is in charge of the FSA fighters in Kobane, said the command center would be set up as soon as the Peshmarga forces arrive in the beleaguered town.
“We will cooperate on every level with our brothers of the Peshmerga forces and YPG fighters,” Igedi told Rudaw television. “When they arrive, we will have full cooperation to defeat the enemy,” he said. “We will not leave Kobane until the enemy (ISIS) has withdrawn.”
On a visit to Paris on Friday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned the global focus on Kobane.
“Why Kobane?,” Erdogan asked at a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande. “Why not Idlib, why not Hama, why not Homs, why not Iraq which is now 40 percent occupied?,” Erdogan asked, naming other Syrian regions facing ISIS violence.
“There are now no people in Kobane except for 2,000 fighters. Is this why the area is continually being bombed? It is not possible to comprehend this,” he said.
Following pressure from the United States, Turkey granted permission for Peshmerga forces to pass through its territory en route to Kobane.
Turkey has remained a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition assembled to defeat ISIS. It has been accused of backing the militants, allowing them access through its territory and turning a blind eye to oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq.
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