Iraqi Kurds bound for Kobani battling arrive in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters bound for the battleground Syrian town of Kobani where they will confront Islamic State jihadists arrived in neighboring Turkey Wednesday, Oct 29, and headed for the border, AFP reported, citing a Turkish official.

Turkey, under heavy pressure from the United States, announced last week it would allow some 150 fighters from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish province to cross its territory to join the fight for Kobani.

One group, which flew in from an Iraqi air base, arrived in southeast Sanliurfa early Wednesday and boarded three buses bound for the Turkey-Syria border, a journey of some 50 kilometers (30 miles).

They were escorted by four Turkish armored cars and a police vehicle. Turkish security forces then closed off the road to the border, preventing the many gathered journalists from following the convoy, according to FP.

Another peshmerga contingent travelled across the land border in some 40 vehicles also carrying heavy weaponry. They were met at the Habur border crossing into southeast Turkey by hundreds of Kurds lining the route and waving Kurdish flags.

The main Syrian Kurdish fighting force in Kobani, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), has close links with the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeast Turkey.

The U.S.-led coalition waging an air campaign against IS has pounded jihadist positions in Kobane in recent days in a bid to prevent the town's fall.

The U.S. military said four more raids had hit IS near Kobani on Monday and Tuesday, along with nine raids on the group in Iraq. At least nine jihadists were killed by Kurdish fighters on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.