Iraqi peshmerga fighters have crossed into Turkey from Iraq, heading to the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds in their battle against Islamic State militants, the Syrian Kurdish leader said on Tuesday.
Saleh Moslem, co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Reuters that around 150 Peshmerga fighters who crossed into Turkey were expected to arrive later tonight to Kurdish-defended Kobani. "They are expected to arrive in Kobani in hours," Moslem said.
Iraqi peshmerga fighters left on Tuesday for the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds in their battle against Islamic State militants, a senior Kurdish official said earlier.
Hemin Hawrami, a senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said in a tweet that peshmerga were on the move from Arbil airport to the Turkish border town of Silopi from where they will travel by land to Kobani.
Turkey ramped up security along the Syrian border on Tuesday (October 28), a day after Islamic State militants tried to seize a border post on the Turkish frontier but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters.
The post links Kobani in Syria with Mursitpinar in Turkey.
Losing the border gate would be a major blow to the Kurdish fighters defending Kobani, it being the only official way for the fighters to cross into Turkey from the border town.
Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, for over a month, pressing their assault despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of fighters.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. forces staged four air strikes on Islamic State militants in Syria and allies joined in nine strikes on the group in Iraq , the U.S. Central Command said.
In Syria, U.S. attack and fighter aircraft went after targets near the border city of Kobani, destroying a small Islamic State unit and four fighting positions.
U.S. and allied attack, fighter and remotely controlled aircraft again targeted the Mosul Dam area with four strikes taking out a small fighting unit, a fighting position, vehicle and logistics base. Two strikes near Fallujah destroyed a small Islamic State unit and tank.
Other strikes were staged west of Baghdad, near Sinjar and northwest of Haditha.
AL QAEDA SEIZES TERRITORY
Fighters linked to al Qaeda have seized territory from a moderate Syrian rebel group in a three-day campaign that has expanded their control into one of the few areas of northern Syria not held by hardline Islamists.
Syrian opposition activist and a military commander said the Nusra Front had taken several villages in Idlib province from the Syria Revolutionaries' Front led by Jamal Maarouf, a prominent figure in the moderate opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.
"This has happened before and we came through it. But this time the mobilisation is very large," said a military official in the Syria Revolutionaries' Front.
Twenty of the group's fighters had been killed on Monday, the official said.
"Jamal remains steadfast," said the official, who declined to be named because he is not an official spokesman for the group. Speaking via Skype, he added that the Syria Revolutionaries' Front had taken 25 Nusra fighters prisoner.
The Nusra Front is al Qaeda's official affiliate in the Syrian civil war and one of the strongest insurgent groups fighting to topple Assad. But it has been overshadowed by the Islamic State, which has seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes.
The official said Islamic State fighters were reinforcing the Nusra Front in the assault. But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the civil war, said it was another hardline group, Jund al-Aqsa, that was providing the backup.
"Nusra is making a lot of progress," said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory.
The Syria Revolutionaries' Front is one of the biggest groups in the Western-backed, moderate opposition to Assad. The United States plans to expand military support to the moderate opposition as part of its strategy to defeat Islamic State.
Yousef Abu Hillal, a secular activist in the Idlib area, said the advance marked the biggest setback to date for Maarouf's group, which is loosely defined as part of the "Free Syrian Army".
The Free Syrian Army is a term used to refer to dozens of groups fighting to overthrow Assad. They have little or no central coordination and are often in competition with each other.
"This is a blow to the Free Syrian Army rebels led by Maarouf and opens the way for Nusra to expand further in the Idlib countryside " said Abu Hillal.
REUTERS