Islamic State offensive | Peshmerga fighters arrive in Turkey for Kobani battle

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters armed with mortars and Katyusha rocket launchers arrived in Turkey today on their way to the Syrian town of Kobani, where they’ll join the fight against Islamic State, according to live footage on NTV television.
The semi-autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq sent about 150 fighters, half of them arriving by plane to the city of Sanliurfa near the border with Syria, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The forces haven’t yet arrived in Kobani, a Kurdish stronghold in Syria along the Turkish border, Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union party, said by phone from the city. “We’re expecting them within hours,” he said.
The deployment of Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, aims to break the weeks-long siege of Kobani by Islamic State, an al-Qaeda breakaway group that has captured large areas of Syria and Iraq since June. The Kurdish fighters in the besieged city have held off the militants with the help of U.S. airstrikes and airdrops of weapons and supplies for Kobani’s defenders.
A group of around 50 fighters from the Free Syrian Army entered into Kobani from Turkey to join Kurdish forces, Ibrahim Kurdu, a senior official in the town, said by phone.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed last week to let the Peshmerga cross into Syria through his country to help defend Kobani as he criticized U.S. weapons airdrops. Erdogan opposes arming the Syrian fighters directly because they are allied with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that has fought for autonomy in Turkey since 1984.
Turkish armored vehicles are accompanying the Peshmerga convoy bearing Iraqi Kurdish flags to Suruc, which lies some 450 kilometers to the west of Turkey’s Habur border crossing with Iraq, footage on NTV showed.
The battle for Kobani has continued to rage even after a U.S.-led coalition seeking to defeat Islamic State stepped up its airstrikes on nearby militant positions. Capturing the town would give the militants control of a large, uninterrupted stretch of northern Syria.
Islamic State fighters attacked the town yesterday with mortars, Kurdu said. Kurdish forces control the border crossing, which the Peshmerga fighters will use to enter Syria, he said. Selcan Hacaoglu and Salma El Wardany  , Bloomberg