150 troops with heavy artillery cross into Syria after brief delay on Turkish side of border

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

After a brief delay on the Turkish side a convoy of heavily armed Kurdish peshmerga fighters has arrived in the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani.

About 150 Kurdish troops travelling with heavy artillery approached the border on Friday evening accompanied by Turkish security forces. They crossed into Syria later that evening.

It is the first time that Turkey has allowed Kurdish fighters to enter Kobani, under attack by Islamic State (Isis) militants for more than 40 days.

On Wednesday a group of 200 Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters entered the besieged town at the request of the People’s Defence Corps (YPG), the Syrian-Kurdish forces who have been defending Kobani against the Isis attack since mid-September.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights the convoy entered the Kurdish enclave from an area west of the city centre, avoiding the main Mürsitpinar border crossing that has been under increased attack by Isis militants. On Wednesday, three FSA fighters were wounded by Isis snipers while entering through the Mürsitpinar gate.

Kobani officials welcomed the arrival of the peshmerga forces but underlined the need for more weapons and further military support.

“It is of course a very good thing that the peshmerga fighters have come to Kobani,” said Idris Nassan, the deputy foreign minister of the enclave. “But from the beginning we have underlined that the most urgent support we require is heavy weaponry and ammunition. We are still fighting for Kobani and we need more weapons to do so.”

On Saturday morning peshmerga fighters told Kurdish media that they had not yet been deployed at the frontlines by the YPG.

Asya Abdullah, the co-chair of the Democratic Union party in Kobani, told Turkish media that both FSA and peshmerga troops would fight under the command of the YPG, whereas Kurdistan regional government officials underlined that their fighters would remain under orders of the peshmerga affairs ministry.

“We were prepared to begin fighting right away,” an anonymous officer told the Kurdish media network Rudaw, “but the YPG told us to settle in and prepare a number of things first.”

Nassan said the administration had no knowledge of military strategies prepared by the YPG.

The FSA, an umbrella term for armed opposition groups estimated to have about 400 troops in Kobani fighting alongside Kurdish combatants, announced the establishment of a joint command centre with the YPG and the Iraqi peshmerga fighters.

However, on Thursday an FSA commander criticised the deployment of forces to Kobani, arguing that rebels in Aleppo, the second biggest city in Syria, could not afford to diminish their numbers in the face of continued attacks both by the Syrian regime and Isis.

During a press conference in Paris on Friday, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, again condemned the international focus on Kobani.

“Why Kobani? Why not Idlib, why not Hama, why not Homs, why not Iraq, which is 40% occupied by Isis?” Erdoğan asked. “There are now no people in Kobani except for 2,000 fighters. Is this why this area is continually being bombed? It is not possible to comprehend this.”

Turkey, an ally of the US but a reluctant supporter of the US-led military coalition, has been under increasing international pressure to provide more than just humanitarian aid to refugees fleeing the violence in Kobani.

Kurdish politicians in Syria and Turkey have urged the Turkish government to allow for the passage of fighters and weapons into Kobani through its borders, but Ankara long resisted all such demands, arguing that the PYD was closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), labelled a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU.

The government of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, harshly condemned the arrival of FSA and peshmerga fighters as a violation of its sovereignty and a “disgraceful act” on the part of Turkey.

While the strategic effect of the Peshmerga fighters on the battle of Kobani remains to be seen, the newfound cooperation between rivalling Kurdish factions already sends a powerful message.

Kurdish politicians have declared 1 November to be World Kobani Day, with demonstrations of solidarity expected in several cities both in Turkey and abroad. Thousands of Kurds have been marching along the Turkish-Syrian border since the early morning to show their support.

“The arrival of the peshmerga signals a new Kurdish unity,” Nassan said. “It unifies Kurdish forces and the Kurdish people. It creates a much stronger solidarity for Kurds everywhere.”