ANKARA, October 28 (RIA Novosti) — Trucks with heavy armament to help the Syrian Kurdish self-defense forces against the Islamic State (IS) militant group on Tuesday left the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Erbil and now moving toward the Syrian city of Kobani via Turkey.
“Peshmerga have crossed the Turkish border and in few hours they will be in Kobani,” leader of the Syrian self-defense forces Saleh Muslim was quoted by the CNN Turk TV channel as saying.
The Peshmerga armed fighters have an agreement with the Turkish authorities to pass via Turkish territory toward Kobani.
It is expected that another part of Iraqi Kurdish fighters will arrive on a plane in Turkish city of Sanliufra, from where both groups will head toward the Syrian border. A total of 150 fighters have been sent to help protect Kobani.
For the past several weeks, IS militants have besieged Kobani, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering Turkey.
The Islamic State is a Sunni jihadist group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it launched an offensive in Iraq, seizing vast areas in both countries and announcing the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control.
Around 500 people have died in clashes between IS and Kurdish fighters in Kobani, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 200,000 refugees have crossed into Turkey to flee the IS threat.
