A convoy of peshmerga fighters from northern
Iraq headed across southeastern Turkey on
Wednesday towards the Syrian town of Kobani
to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic
State siege which has defied U.S.-led air
strikes.
Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been
under assault for more than a month and its
fate has become a test of the U.S.-led
coalition's ability to combat the Sunni Muslim
insurgents.
Weeks of air strikes on Islamic State positions
around Kobani and the deaths of hundreds of
their fighters have failed to break the siege.
The Kurds and their international allies hope
the arrival of the peshmerga, along with
heavier weapons, can turn the tide.
The Kurdish fighters were given a heroes'
welcome as their convoy of jeeps and flatbed
trucks, some bearing heavy machineguns,
snaked its way for around 400 km (250 miles)
through Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast
after crossing the border from northern Iraq.
The presence of Kurdish forces passing with
government permission through a part of
Turkey which has seen a three-decade
insurgency by local Kurdish PKK militants
was an extraordinary sight for many
residents.
Villagers set bonfires, let off fireworks and
chanted by the side of the road as the convoy
passed. Thousands took to the streets of the
border town of Suruc, descending on its tree-
lined main square and spilling into side
streets, some with faces painted in the colors
of the Kurdish flag.
"All the Kurds are together. We want them to
go and fight in Kobani and liberate it," said
Issa Ahamd, an 18-year-old high school
student among the almost 200,000 Syrian
Kurds who have fled to Turkey since the
assault on Kobani began.
An initial group of between 90 and 100
peshmerga fighters arrived by plane amid
tight security in the nearby city of Sanliurfa
early on Wednesday, according to Adham
Basho, a member of the Syrian Kurdish
National Council from Kobani.
Saleh Moslem, co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish
Democratic Union Party (PYD), said the
peshmerga were expected to bring heavy arms
to Kobani - known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.
"It's mainly artillery, or anti-armor, anti-tank
weapons," he said. The lightly armed Syrian
Kurds have said such weaponry is crucial to
driving back Islamic State insurgents, who
have used armored vehicles and tanks in their
assault.
Kurdistan's Minister of Peshmerga, Mustafa
Sayyid Qader, told local media on Tuesday
that no limits had been set to how long the
forces would remain in Kobani. The Kurdistan
Regional Government has said the fighters
would not engage in direct combat in Kobani
but rather provide artillery support
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