Iraqi Kurds on the move to fight IS

Forces allowed to reach Kobani by going through Turkish territory

A group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops arrived in Turkey early on Wednesday on their way to Syria to help their Syrian Kurdish brethren fight Islamic State extremists in the embattled city of Kobani.

The unprecedented mission by 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, while lies near the Syrian-Turkish border.

The action marked the first mission for the peshmerga outside Iraq.

After a rousing send-off from thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters in Irbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, the peshmerga forces landed early on Wednesday at the Sanliurfa Airport in southeastern 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.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the BBC that sending the peshmerga was "the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don't want to use ground troops".

The Islamic State launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September, killing more than 800 people. The extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages. More than 200,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey.

Sensitive politics

The deployment of the 150 peshmerga fighters, who were authorized by the Iraqi Kurdish government to go to Kobani, underscores the sensitive political tensions in the region.

Turkey's government views the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani as consistent with 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.

Under pressure to take greater action against the IS 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 will only allow the peshmerga forces from Iraq, with whom it has a good relationship, and not those from the PKK.

Scores of people waited by the side of the road in villages for the troops to pass. Thousands of people awaited them at the border. The crowd sang and chanted traditional peshmerga songs and had to be pushed back by every vehicle that tried to make its way through the masses.

The Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focus in the war against the Islamic State, with Kurdish populations in both countries under significant threat by the militant group's lightning advance.

Jen Psaki, US State Department spokeswoman, said US officials "certainly encourage" the deployment of Iraqi peshmerga forces to Kobani.

Syrian rebels

A small group of Syrian rebels also entered Kobani from Turkey on Wednesday to help Kurdish fighters battle IS.

The group of around 50 armed men is from the Free Syrian Army, which is separate from the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

The FSA is an umbrella group of mainstream rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The political leadership of the Western-backed FSA is based in Turkey.

AP - Reuters

(China Daily 10/30/2014 page12)