GAZIANTEP, Turkey
The peshmerga fighters from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north sent to fight in Syria will cooperate closely with Kurdish groups there, a Kurdistan official said Thursday.
Peshmerga, a term used to refer to armed Kurdish fighters in Iraq, are to be sent via Turkey to the Syrian border town of Kobani to fight militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant attacking the town.
"We will have the command of all Peshmerga fighters," the secretary general of the ministry of peshmerga affairs of the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, Cabbar Yaver, told The Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
He said that preparations were in underway for the peshmerga to travel, and that it was not yet clear whether the peshmerga fighters will be sent by land or by air.
Yaver said that peshmerga fighters will take with them semi-heavy weapons.
The parliament of the Kurdish region unanimously voted Wednesday to send peshmerga forces via Turkey to the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to fight against ISIL militants.
Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, is currently being defended by People’s Protection Units -- the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party, which is listed by Turkey as a terrorist group.
The Syrian-Turkish border town has been the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and ISIL since mid-September.
The vote at the regional parliament came two days after Turkey said it would help peshmerga forces access Kobani through Turkish territory.
Free Syrian army to send military aid to Kobani
The Free Syrian Army will send troops to Kobani to fight alongside the Kurdish forces there, the group said Thursday.
The group, the main opposition armed group battling Syrian President Bashar al Assad, will send troops to the town to aid in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to a written statement by the group's operating unit in Aleppo.
The troops will be under the command of Colonel Abdul-Jabbar al-Aqidi. Details of the operations were not made public.
In the statement, the group called on international coalition forces and other armed groups in the region for assistance and cooperation in combating ISIL.
www.aa.com.tr/en
