Thursday, October 30, 2014

Iraqi Peshmerga starts entering Syria's Kobane

Damascus, Oct 30 (IANS) A total of 10 Peshmerga fighters crossed the Turkish borders into Syria’s predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane Thursday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.


The 10 fighters are the first batch to enter the city since Turkey allowed the Peshmerga to join the fight in Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab, against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Xinhua reported citing the observatory.


The observatory said more Peshmerga fighters were expected to cross the borders into Kobane within the next few hours.


The Peshmerga forces, sent by the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, will help Syrian Kurds in their fight against the IS extremists, just a couple of days after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Iraqi Kurdish forces could cross Turkey’s territory into Syria at any moment to fight the IS.


The IS unleashed its wide-scale offensive against Kobane bordering Turkey Sep 15 in a bid to capture the city. This would have enabled the Sunni radical group to link its self-declared capital of al-Raqqa province with Kobane and stretch its territory to areas bordering Turkey.


The IS has captured more than 300 villages around the city and managed to storm parts of it after forcing over 160,000 people to flee to neighbouring Turkey.




Iraqi Peshmerga starts entering Syria's Kobane

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