A convoy of Iraqi Kurdish
forces in Turkey rolled late on Friday across the border into Syria to
help Syrian Kurds defend the besieged town of Kobani that has become the
focus of a Western-backed war against Islamic State insurgents.
"We have crossed over," one of the peshmerga fighters in the group subsequently told Reuters by telephone.
The force numbers only around 150 but brings weapons and ammunition. Their arrival would mark the first time Turkey has allowed ground troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have been defending Kobani for more than 40 days.
The Kobani battle has raged in full view of the Turkish frontier, testing whether a U.S.-led coalition can halt Islamic State's advance. The failure of Turkey to help defend the town sparked riots among Turkish Kurds in which 40 people died.
Islamic State militants have killed or displaced Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and other communities deemed enemies of their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam. They executed at least 220 Iraqi Sunnis in retaliation for opposition to their takeover of territory west of Baghdad this week. [ID:nL5N0SP5O5]
Earlier on Friday, machinegun fire could be heard from the Turkish side of the border as Islamic State fighters pounded the area near where the peshmerga were expected to cross.
MASSACRE
This week's execution of tribesmen who resisted
Islamic State's advance in the Euphrates basin appears to be the worst
mass killing of fellow Sunnis by a group previously known for
slaughtering Shi'ites and non-Muslims.
At least 220 bodies of men from the Albu Nimr tribe, seized by Islamic State days earlier, were found in mass graves. They had been shot at close range.
The U.S. State Department said it was deeply concerned by reports of the mass executions. Islamic State's "indiscriminate crimes prove, yet again, that it is targeting all Iraqis, regardless of faith or religion," it said.
TURKISH KURDS ANGRY
The arrival of Iraqi Kurds through Turkey to help protect Kobani in Syria is a major political event in a conflict that has spread violence across the region.
U.S.-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around
Kobani earlier in the day in an apparent effort to pave the way for the
heavily-armed Kurdish contingent to enter.
The Iraqi
Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga or "those who defy death", had set
off cheering and making victory signs in more than a dozen trucks and
jeeps, accompanied by armored vehicles and artillery. They headed from a
holding point around 8 km (5 miles) from the frontier towards Kobani."We have crossed over," one of the peshmerga fighters in the group subsequently told Reuters by telephone.
The force numbers only around 150 but brings weapons and ammunition. Their arrival would mark the first time Turkey has allowed ground troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have been defending Kobani for more than 40 days.
As the peshmerga headed towards the border, a loud blast
was heard in the Kobani area, the latest in a rapid series of
explosions, in an apparent intensification of the fighting.
Despite having limited strategic significance, Kobani has become
a powerful international symbol in the battle against the hardline
Sunni Muslim insurgents who have captured large expanses of Iraq and
Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".The Kobani battle has raged in full view of the Turkish frontier, testing whether a U.S.-led coalition can halt Islamic State's advance. The failure of Turkey to help defend the town sparked riots among Turkish Kurds in which 40 people died.
Islamic State militants have killed or displaced Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and other communities deemed enemies of their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam. They executed at least 220 Iraqi Sunnis in retaliation for opposition to their takeover of territory west of Baghdad this week. [ID:nL5N0SP5O5]
Earlier on Friday, machinegun fire could be heard from the Turkish side of the border as Islamic State fighters pounded the area near where the peshmerga were expected to cross.
MASSACRE
In Iraq, government forces and Kurds have made gains
against Islamic State in the north in recent weeks. But the U.S. air
strikes have failed to stop the insurgents from advancing in Anbar, a
vast western desert province straddling the Euphrates river valley from
the Syrian border to Baghdad's outskirts.
At least 220 bodies of men from the Albu Nimr tribe, seized by Islamic State days earlier, were found in mass graves. They had been shot at close range.
Many Iraqi Sunnis supported Islamic State as it advanced
through the north and west of the country in the first half of the year,
seeing the fighters as protectors from the Shi'ite-led government in
Baghdad.
With a new government under a Shi'ite prime
minister seen as more conciliatory having taken office in September,
Washington hopes that tribes can be coaxed to switch sides and help
fight the militants, as they did in Anbar during the 2006-07 "surge"
campaign, the bloodiest phase of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. But so
far, tribes that resist Islamic State have faced harsh retribution,
while complaining of scant support from Baghdad.
Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric called on the government on Friday to rush to their aid.
“What is required from the Iraqi government ... is to
offer quick support to the sons of this tribe and other tribes that are
fighting Daesh (Islamic State) terrorists," Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani said, in an address read out by an aide in the holy city of
Kerbala after Friday prayers.
"This will offer the opportunity to the other tribes to
join the fighters against Daesh," said the message from the reclusive
84-year-old cleric, whose pronouncements are seen by Shi'ites in Iraq
and beyond as having the force of law.
Sheikh Naeem al-Ga'oud, a leader of the Albu Nimr, told
Reuters he feared many more tribesmen would be rounded up, shot and
dumped in mass graves. He said his tribe had pleaded to the government
for help in the days before its village fell to an Islamic State
onslaught.
"A day before the attack we told them
(the government) that we will be targeted by the Islamic State. I talked
to the commander of the air force, with several commanders," he told
Reuters in an interview. "We gave them the coordinates of the places
where they were, but nobody listened to us."The U.S. State Department said it was deeply concerned by reports of the mass executions. Islamic State's "indiscriminate crimes prove, yet again, that it is targeting all Iraqis, regardless of faith or religion," it said.
TURKISH KURDS ANGRY
The arrival of Iraqi Kurds through Turkey to help protect Kobani in Syria is a major political event in a conflict that has spread violence across the region.
Turkey has absorbed some 200,000 refugees from the Kobani
area in recent weeks, but its failure to act to help protect the border
town infuriated members of its own Kurdish minority, leading to riots in
October in which around 40 people died.
Erdogan, who has been a reluctant supporter of the
U.S.-led coalition but has allowed the passage of the peshmerga from
northern Iraq, said Washington and its allies were too focused on Kobani
and should also turn attention elsewhere.
"Why Kobani and not other towns like Idlib, Hama or Homs
(in Syria) ... while Iraqi territory is 40 percent controlled by the
Islamic State?" Erdogan told a news conference in Paris after talks with
President Francois Hollande. Erdogan said a peace process with Kurds in
Turkey would continue despite the riots.
The U.S. military said it continued to target Islamic
State militants near Kobani on Thursday and Friday. It said four air
strikes damaged four fighting positions used by the militant group as
well as one of its buildings.
"For the past 15 days, Islamic State has been attacking to
try to take control of the border gate, including with car bombs. But
we are resisting," said Enver Muslim, the top Kurdish administrative
official in the Kobani district.
"While the peshmerga convoy passes, U.S. jets will be
overhead and warplanes from the coalition ... will be flying over Kobani
to ensure their security," he told Reuters by phone.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
on Friday preliminary information indicated that at least 21 Islamic
State members were killed in coalition air strikes around Kobani,
including a Danish jihadist.
Around 200 fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an
umbrella term for dozens of armed groups fighting against both Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State, have also entered Kobani
from Turkey to help defend the town.
The peshmerga were given a heroes' welcome as their convoy
of jeeps and flatbed trucks crossed Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast
this week, making their way towards Kobani from their base in northern
Iraq's Kurdistan region.
It is unclear whether the small but heavily armed contingent
will be enough to swing the battle, but the deployment is a potent
display of unity between Kurdish groups that often seek to undermine
each other.
Assad's government responded to the arrival of the Iraqi peshmerga by
condemning Turkey for allowing foreign fighters and "terrorists" to
enter Syria in a violation of its sovereignty. Its foreign ministry
described the move as a "disgraceful act".