MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Iraqi peshmerga fighters prepared Saturday to battle Islamic State militants in the Syrian border town of Kobani, hours after they arrived in a town that has become a focal point in the battle against the extremists.
The force brought in badly needed heavy weapons, including artillery, heavy machine guns and anti-tank missiles, material that could tip the balance of power in favor of the embattled Kurds fighting there.
The deployment came as Syria’s al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front scored a major victory against a moderate rebel faction, capturing its headquarters as well as the mountainous strategic region of Jabal al-Zawiya in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Jabal al-Zawiya was one of the first areas to fall out of President Bashar Assad’s control after the uprising against his government began in March 2011.
The push in Idlib against the moderate rebel faction could be a blow to the U.S. as it plans to work with moderate rebel factions in the future to fight jihadis and Assad’s forces.
“This is a blow to the Syrian moderate opposition in general,” said Asad Kanjo, an activist based in Idlib.
Shorsh Hassan, a spokesman for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, said the peshmerga and the YPG are preparing a role for Iraqi Kurdish troops. Hassan’s comments came after about 150 peshmerga fighters on Friday night entered Kobani to fight the extremist group that controls parts of the town.
“The priority will be to recapture Kobani neighborhoods that were taken by (the Islamic State), and then the goal is to liberate all villages in the countryside of Kobani,” Hassan said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the peshmerga force had yet to take part in any battles in Kobani.
Mustafa Bali, a Kobani- based activist, said the peshmerga force will play a supporting role and will mostly work inside the town, adding that it still hasn’t deployed. He added that YPG fighters will benefit from the weapons that the Iraqi Kurds brought with them.
Since mid-September, Islamic State fighters have captured dozens of predominantly Kurdish villages near Kobani and entered the town they have been trying to capture for weeks.
More than 200,000 people have fled to Turkey, and more than 800 people have died, activists say.
Islamic State positions in Kobani also have been targeted by more than 150 airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition during the past weeks.
On Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said American military forces conducted five airstrikes near Kobani that suppressed or destroyed nine Islamic State fighting positions and struck one building used by the jihadis.
The Observatory said the Islamic State launched another offensive Friday night in Kobani but failed to advance.
Related
Islamic State extremists lined up and shot dead at least 50 tribesmen and women in Iraq’s Anbar province, officials said Saturday, the latest mass killing committed by the group.
The shooting happened late Friday in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of the provincial capital of Ramadi, said Anbar councilman Faleh al-Issawi.
Militants accused the men and women of the Al Bu Nimr tribe of retaliating after being displaced from their homes when the group seized the Anbar town of Hit last month, al-Issawi said.
“These killings are taking place almost on a daily basis now in the areas under the control of the Islamic State group, and they will continue unless this terrorist group is stopped,” al-Issawi said.
Meanwhile Saturday, the United Nations mission in Baghdad said that at least 1,273 Iraqis were killed in violence in October.
— The Associated Press
