IRBIL, Iraq — Thousands of cheering, flag-waving people gave a noisy send-off to a group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops who left Tuesday for Turkey — the first step on their way to help their Syrian brethren fight Islamic extremists in the embattled border town of Kobani.
The unprecedented mission by the 150 fighters to help fellow Kurds in their battle with the Islamic State militant group came after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga cross into Syria via Turkey — although the Turkish prime minister reiterated that his country would not be sending forces of its own to Kobani.
A U.S. State Department official confirmed that peshmerga fighters are on their way to Kobani but did not know when they were expected to arrive. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be identified in discussing the issue.
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 group 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.
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 only is allowing the peshmerga forces from Iraq, with whom it has a good relationship, and not those from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said U.S. officials “certainly encourage” the deployment of Iraqi peshmerga forces to Kobani. U.S. Central Command said American forces carried out four airstrikes near Kobani in the past 24 hours, destroying four Islamic State group fighting positions and a small unit.
