Iraqi Peshmerga set to join Kobane battle ANKARA, October 28 -- Kurdish forces load weapons onto planes and vehicles as they prepare to join fight against ISIL in Syria. Dozens of Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers are leaving Iraq for the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to help fellow Kurds in their battle against the ISIS. Reports tell that a convoy of 50-60 vehicles, including buses carrying soldiers and some vehicles towing canons, leaving the Iraqi city of Erbil on Tuesday afternoon. An Iraqi Kurdistan official in the city earlier told that more than 150 Peshmerga soldiers were ready to depart and that a plane was being loaded with light weapons. Supplies of heavy weapons were expected to be transported by road to Turkey, the officials said. Syrian Kurds have battled fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) group in and around Kobane since mid-September. Despite US-led air strikes supporting the Kurds, ISIS has kept up its assault. Last week the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) authorised about 150 Peshmerga soldiers to go to Syria to fight. Turkey has been reluctant to join the US-led coalition against ISIS. But after pressure from its Western allies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last Wednesday that some Peshmerga soldiers from Iraq would be allowed to transit through Turkey to Kobane. Halgord Hekmat, spokesman for the KRG's ministry for Peshmerga affairs, has said the soldiers are "support forces" and will be armed with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket launchers. They are not expected to fight on the frontline. Open-ended deployment The deployment is open-ended, with Mustafa Sayid Qadir, the Peshmerga affairs minister, saying: "They will remain there until they are no longer needed." ISIS has captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobane and now also control parts of the town. The battles have killed more than 800 people, according to activists, and sent more than 200,000 people fleeing into Turkey. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the US-led coalition carried out three air strikes on Kobane on Tuesday, targeting a gathering of ISIS fighters. The US Central Command said more air strikes were launched in Syria and Iraq on Monday and Tuesday. In Syria, four air strikes near Kobane destroyed four ISIS fighting positions and a small ISIS unit, a US statement said. ISIS has taken over large expanses of land in Iraq and Syria and been accused of grave atrocities in both countries.
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