Thousands of cheering, flag-waving people gave a noisy send-off to a group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops who have left for Turkey, the first step on their way to help their Syrian brethren fight Islamic extremists in the embattled border town of Kobani.
The unprecedented mission by the 150 fighters to help fellow Kurds in their battle with the Islamic State group came yesterday after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga cross into Syria via Turkey, although the Turkish prime minister reiterated that his country would not be sending any ground forces of its own to Kobani.
A US State Department official confirmed that peshmerga fighters are on their way to Kobani but did not know when they were expected to arrive.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to be identified in discussing the issue.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the BBC that sending the peshmerga was “the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don’t want to use ground troops.”
The Islamic State group launched its offencive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September, killing more than 800 people, according to activists.
The Sunni extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town. More than 200,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey.
The US is leading a coalition that has carried out dozens of airstrikes targeting the militants in and around Kobani.
The deployment of the 150 peshmerga fighters, who were authorised by the Iraqi Kurdish government to go to Kobani, underscores the sensitive political tensions in the region.
Turkey’s government views the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani as loyal to what Ankara regards as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
That group has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the US and NATO.
Under pressure to take greater action against the IS militants, from the West as well as from Kurds inside Turkey and Syria, the Turkish government agreed to let the fighters cross through its territory.
But it only is allowing the peshmerga forces from Iraq, with whom it has a good relationship, and not those from the PKK.
Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hekmat said the fighters were flying yesterday to Turkey and from there would cross into Syria. He gave no further details.
A convoy of Toyota land cruisers and trucks with cannons and machine guns headed toward the Iraqi Kurdish area of Dohuk on the way to Turkey.
Peshmerga soldiers carrying Kurdish flags were atop some of the vehicles. The troops made the victory sign for the cameras. An ambulance and government vehicles blaring their sirens accompanied the convoy.