Turkey lets Kurds reinforce Kobane
US drops arms aid; need more weapons, say Kurds; Turkey airspace not used in airdrops; 43 die in Iraq blasts
Mursitpinar ( Turkey)/ Beirut/ Washington/ Ankara / Paris, Oct. 20: Washington made a first arms drop to Kurdish fighters battling jihadists for the Syrian border town of Kobane Monday as neighbouring Turkey said it was helping Iraqi Kurdish forces to join the fight.
The weapons were dropped by air as Ankara has refused to deliver arms by land to the Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobane, who have links with Turkey’s outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK).
But in a shift of policy, Ankara announced on Monday that it was helping Iraqi Kurdish fighters — who are not linked to the PKK — to reinforce the town against a jihadist offensive now nearly five weeks old.
Washington has said repeatedly that the main priority in its campaign against the ISIS group remains neighbouring Iraq, where the jihadists seized much of the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June.
But a senior administration official said the arms drop was a recognition of the “impressive” resistance put up by the Kurdish fighters and the losses they were inflicting on ISIS.
The main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the Syrian border town on Kobane against ISIS attackers said on Monday arms air- dropped by the United States would not be enough for it to win the battle, and asked for more support.
Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG group, said the weapons dropped overnight would have a “positive impact” on the battle and the morale of fighters who have been out- gunned by ISIS. But he added: “Certainly it will not be enough to decide the battle.”
Turkish airspace was not used during airdrops carried out by the United States to support Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian border town of Kobane, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Monday.
US warplanes, however, bombed a bundle of supplies that went astray near the Syrian border town of Kobane after they had air dropped it for besieged Kurdish defenders, the military said Monday.
US Central Command said the bundle was targeted by warplanes to prevent it from falling into the hands of enemy ISIS fight- ers.
“All other resupply bundles were successfully delivered,” the command said of the air drops, the first of weapons, food and medicine since the fighting for Kobane began.
Meanwhile, US warplanes also carried out six airstrikes around Kobane Sunday and Monday, hitting ISIS fighting and mortar positions and a truck.
In Iraq, French fighter jets have carried out a third round of airstrikes against ISIS jihadists in support of Iraqi ground forces, the defence ministry said Monday.
Two Rafale jets on Sunday destroyed two pick- up trucks belonging to the extremist group.
Militants unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on the country’s majority Shia community, killing at least 43 people.
The day’s attacks killed dozens in Baghdad and the Shia holy city of Karbala.
In the capital, the bomber blew himself up among Shia worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in a central commercial area after midday prayers on Monday. That blast killed at least 17 people and wounded 28, a police officer said. In Karbala, four separate car bombs went off simultaneously, killing at least 26 people and wounding 55, another police officer said. Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media. — AFP, Reuters