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Iraqi Kurdish fighters arrive in Turkey after deal to let them cross into Syria Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross Turkish border into Syria in battle against Isis
(about 1 hour later)
A group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops arrived in Turkey early on Wednesday on their way to Syria to fight Islamic State (Isis) extremists in the embattled border town of Kobani. Dozens of Iraqi Kurdish fighters have crossed the Turkish border to join fighters in Syria pushing back the attack by Islamic State militants on the border town of Kobani.
The unprecedented mission by the 150 fighters came after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga troops to cross into Syria via Turkey, although the Turkish prime minister reiterated that his country would not be sending any ground forces of its own to Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border. More than 80 peshmerga fighters who arrived at the Sanliurfa airport in the early hours of the morning have reached Kobani.
The peshmerga forces landed early on Wednesday at the Sanliurfa airport in south-eastern Turkey. They left the airport in buses escorted by Turkish security forces and were expected to travel to Kobani through the Mursitpinar border crossing with Syria. The remaining 70 – who set off from Irbil,the capital the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, on Tuesday – are still on the road in Turkey, driving in a convoy carrying heavy artillery and weapons along with armoured vehicles and ambulances. They crossed from Iraq into Turkey at Habur on Wednesday morning where they were met by enthusiastic crowds and Turkish security forces. The convoy is expected to arrive in Syria later on Wednesday.
The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, told the BBC that sending the peshmerga was “the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don’t want to use ground troops”. Last week Turkey agreed to let the Iraqi-Kurdish fighters cross through its territory following international pressure to take greater action against the Islamic State (Isis) militants across its borders. The Turkish government said it would only allow peshmerga fighters to enter Kobani and not those affiliated with Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey and is listed as a terrorist group by both the US and the EU. Turkey views fighter from YPG (Syrian People’s Defence Corps) who ate currently fending off Isis militants as being loyal to the PKK.
Isis launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September, killing more than 800 people, according to activists. The Sunni extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town. More than 200,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey. Kobani officials have said that local YPG commanders were in close contact with the peshmerga fighters in order to coordinate their strategies.
The US is leading a coalition that has carried out dozens of air strikes targeting the militants in and around Kobani. According to Turkish media reports, the border crossing by peshmerga fighters is being overseen by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation instead of its military, which is in charge of border security. “The Turkish armed forces do not want to give the impression of being in charge of the peshmerga transit”, military sources told the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
The deployment of the 150 peshmerga fighters, who were authorised by the Iraqi Kurdish government to go to Kobani, underscores the sensitive political tensions in the region. Last week the Iraqi Kurdish regional government (KRG) approved deployment of peshmerga forces to the beleaguered Syrian Kurdish enclave of Kobani. A Kurdish government spokesman later said the fighters would provide artillery support rather than to engage in direct combat with Isis militants.
Turkey’s government views the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani as loyal to what Ankara regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK. That group has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the US and Nato. Mustafa Sayid Qader, peshmerga affairs minister for the KRG, said the fighters sent to Kobani would fight under “the direct command of his ministry”, adding that they were well trained and armed with advanced weapons.
Under pressure to take greater action against the Isis militants from the west as well as from Kurds inside Turkey and Syria, the Turkish government agreed to let the fighters cross through its territory. But it is allowing only the peshmerga forces from Iraq, with whom it has a good relationship, and not those from the PKK. The US – which has repeatedly called on its Nato ally Turkey to provide more than humanitarian support to the Syrian Kurdish enclave, welcomed the peshmerga deployment – calling it a “step to degrade and ultimately defeat” Isis.
A separate Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers and trucks carrying cannons and machine guns crossed into Turkey early on Wednesday at the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing at Zakho in northern Iraq. Damascus also welcomed the deployment.
The land convoy and the 150 fighters were expected to join up and cross jointly into Syria. “The Islamic State is the enemy of humanity and everyone else and we see sending the Peshmerga to Kobani as positive,. The Kurds need to support their brethren,” Ali Haidar, the Syrian national reconciliation minister, told the Iraqi-Kurdish news site Rudaw.
Peshmerga soldiers carrying Kurdish flags were on some of the vehicles as they headed from Irbil to the Iraqi-Turkish border crossing. The troops made the victory sign. An ambulance and government vehicles with blaring sirens accompanied the convoy. According to KRG officials, 150 peshmerga fighters in total will join Kurdish and Free Syrian Army fighters in defending Kobani against Isis, who have been laying siege to the town since mid-September, forcing an estimated 200,000 people to flee into Turkey.
The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focus in the war against Isis, with Kurdish populations in both countries under significant threat from the militant group’s lightning advance as it seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region.