Asia

Asia

Air strikes hit Kobani as Kurdish peshmerga prepare to enter

31 October 2014 20:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S.-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around the Syrian border town of Kobani on Friday in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The predominantly Kurdish town, besieged for more than 40 days, has become the focus of a global war against the Sunni Muslim insurgents, who have captured expanses of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate" straddling the two.

Its fighters have killed or driven away Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and other communities who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam. They executed at least 220 Iraqi Sunnis in retaliation against opposition to their takeover of territory west of Baghdad this week.

The siege of Kobani, known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab, has turned into a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to stop Islamic State's advance, with weeks of air strikes so far failing to break the insurgents' stranglehold.

The arrival of the Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, would be the first time Turkey has allowed ground troops from outside Syria to reach the border town to reinforce Syrian Kurds who have been defending it for weeks.

Machinegun fire could be heard from the town of Suruc on the Turkish side of the border, as Islamic State fighters pounded the area near where the peshmerga are expected to cross. Kobani's defenders, outgunned by the militants, are hoping the peshmerga, with badly-needed weapons including cannon and truck-mounted machine-guns, will help them turn the tide.

An advance guard of 10 peshmerga briefly entered Kobani on Thursday to discuss a joint strategy with leaders of the YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town.

Armored vehicles came and went from a former cotton processing warehouse near Suruc, where the wider contingent of around 150 peshmerga fighters were preparing for action.

Tankers from the convoy emerged from the compound, guarded by Turkish security forces, to fill up at a local fuel station. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the soldiers were awaiting instructions from Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region.