Kurdish fighters leave Iraq to join Kobani battle against IS

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters headed for the battleground Syrian town of Kobani to join the fight against Islamic State.

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Kurdish people are waiting for permission to enter Syria and join the city of Kobani, in the southeastern Turkish village of Mursitpinar in the Sanliurfa province (AAP Image/NEWZULU/ONDER GUVEN)

A convoy of 50-60 vehicles, buses carrying Peshmerga soldiers and vehicles towing canons has left the Iraqi city of Erbil to cross the border into Turkey.

The town of Kobani on the Turkish border has become a crucial front in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Syrian Kurds have battled fighters of IS in and around Kobani since mid-September. Despite US-led air strikes supporting the Kurds, IS has kept up its assault.

Last week the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) authorised around 150 Peshmerga soldiers to go to Syria to fight.

"Forty vehicles carrying machine guns, weapons and artillery with 80 of the Peshmerga forces will head to Dohuk (province) and then cross the border," a Kurdish officer told reporters.

Halgord Hekmat, the spokesman of the Kurdish ministry responsible for the Peshmerga, said the fighters are "support forces" and will be armed with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket launchers.

They are not expected to fight on the front line.

The deployment will be open-ended, with Peshmerga minister Mustafa Qader saying that: "They will remain there until they are no longer needed."

Last week, under heavy US pressure, Turkey unexpectedly announced it would allow the Peshmerga fighters to cross its territory to join the fight for Kobani.


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