FSA sends 1,300 fighters to join Kurds in Kobane

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that 1,300 Free Syrian Army fighters would join Kurds in defending the key Syrian border town of Kobane from an assault by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants.

The Syrian Kurds have "accepted 1,300 people from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and they are holding talks to determine the transit route," Erdogan told reporters in Estonia's capital Tallinn.

Kurdish fighters have been battling ISIS with the help of air-strikes carried out by U.S.-led coalition warplanes.

The FSA on Thursday said they were sending a force to Kobane to support Kurdish fighters.

There is an estimated 2,000 Kurdish fighters inside Kobane holding out against ISIS militants over the past several weeks.
U.S. officials have said the Kurdish fighters appeared likely to maintain their positions indefinitely with the help of the U.S. air campaign.

Turkey said Thursday that it would allow 200 Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga fighters to cross into Kobane and join their brethren in the fight against ISIS.

The regional administration in northern Iraq and Syrian Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) "finally agreed according to information yesterday that 200 peshmerga would be going" to Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in the Latvian capital Riga.

There are an estimated 2,000 Kurdish fighters battling ISIS militants for control of Kobane.

Long at odds with Kurds fighting for their own homeland, Turkey said this week it would allow passage for Iraqi Kurd Peshmerga into Kobane.

(with AFP)