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Islamic State: Turkey to let Iraq Kurds join Kobane fight | Islamic State: Turkey to let Iraq Kurds join Kobane fight |
(35 minutes later) | |
Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross the Syrian border to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in Kobane, its foreign minister says. | Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to cross the Syrian border to fight Islamic State (IS) militants in Kobane, its foreign minister says. |
Mevlut Cavusoglu added that talks on the subject were continuing, but gave no further details. | Mevlut Cavusoglu added that talks on the subject were continuing, but gave no further details. |
Tens of thousands of people from Kobane have fled months of fighting between besieging IS forces and Syrian Kurd defenders. | |
Until now Turkey has refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross into Syria. | Until now Turkey has refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross into Syria. |
Turkey has been fearful of stoking separatist sentiment among its own Kurds. | |
The government views the PKK, which has fought a decades-long campaign for greater autonomy in Turkey and has links with the Syrian Kurds defending Kobane, as a terrorist organisation. | |
But Turkey has come under pressure from its own Kurdish population, and more widely, to allow fighters in to help push IS out of the town, which has become highly symbolic of the wider battle against IS. | |
Only hours before Mr Cavusoglu's announcement, the United States military said it had carried out air drops of weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Syrian Kurdish fighters around Kobane. | |
The drops of supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq were "intended to enable continued resistance against Isil's attempts to overtake Kobane," Centcom said in a statement. IS is also referred to as Isil and Isis. | |
Officials said three planes - C130 Hercules - were involved and 27 bundles were dropped. The planes returned safely. | |
CentCom says US forces have conducted more than 135 air strikes against IS in Kobane since early October. | |
"Combined with continued resistance to Isil on the ground, indications are that these strikes have slowed Isil advances into the city, killed hundreds of their fighters and destroyed or damaged scores of pieces of Isil combat equipment and fighting positions," the Centcom statement said. | |
But "Kobane could still fall," it added. | |
On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not allow Kurdish fighters to receive any transfers of American arms. |