العربي الديمقراطي The Latest From The Arab World
مقالات مشابهة
Iraqi peshmerga forces On Thursday reached the Turkish border as they prepared to join their fellow Kurds fighting the extremist group Islamic State (IS) in Kobane.
According to monitoring group Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a group of ten fighters were to coordinate with the Kurdish militia in Kobane that has been resisting the IS assault for the past six weeks.
An AFP photographer reported seeing a peshmerga convoy arriving in the town of Suruc near the Turkish border. The convoy connected with another peshmerga battalion in the town, but it remains unclear if the force would reach Kobane.
According to Turkish officials, around 150 peshmerga fighters will travel to Kobane, armed with rocket launchers, heavy artillery and machineguns.
The observatory has said that IS militants were pounding the northern parts of Kobane with heavy artillery, in a bid to stop the peshmerga force from crossing. They also attacked a northern neighborhood overnight but were forced to retreat due to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, the observatory added.
“The bombardment of the border area will likely delay the entry of the peshmerga” in to Kobane, the observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said
The small peshmerga group that had entered Kobane was there to “coordinate the arrival of their comrades”, the observatory said.
The Syrian regime has denounced Ankara for allowing the peshmerga force across the border.
“Once again, Turkey has shown its conspiratorial role… by allowing foreign forces and terrorist groups to enter Syria. This constitutes a flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty”, state television reported the foreign ministry saying.
Several hundreds of pro-government fighters and Iraq soldiers were gathering near the extremist-held town Baiji to plan an assault, officers said.
“Iraqi forces are massing at the town of Baiji, preparing to enter the town and regain control of it”, Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, leader of the provincial military command, said.