WASHINGTON
The U.S. carried out an aerial resupply of Kurdish forces in the besieged city of Kobani overnight Sunday as the group continues to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
Senior administration officials who spoke to reporters on condition that their names not be made public said that three C-130 aircraft delivered 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition and medical supplies.
Initial assessments are that “the vast majority” of supplies reached their intended targets, with an official saying that additional drops may occur "in the days ahead." Iraqi Kurdish authorities provided Sunday's aid.
The Kurdish majority border town of Kobani, which is under the control of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG -- armed wing of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD -- has been the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and ISIL since mid-September.
Turkey considers the PYD to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, terrorist group that has waged a three-decade long bloody insurgency in Turkey. The U.S. and EU have listed the PKK as a terrorist organization.
U.S. President Barack Obama informed his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of the U.S.' intent to carry out the resupply during a phone call Saturday night, according to the officials. They did not characterize the Turkish response.
Thousands of people would likely be massacred if Kobani were to fall to ISIL militants, according to U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura. It would also allow the group to link its self-declared capital in Raqqa with its fighting positions in the contested city of Aleppo to the west and the Iraqi city of Mosul to the east.
“What we’ve seen over the course of the last several days and weeks is ISIL surged its resources towards Kobani -- masses of fighters and heavy weapons,” said another official. “The forces fighting on the ground have been in a tough fight for a number of weeks now, and it came to our attention that they are running low on supplies. For that reason, the President determined to take this action now.”
The U.S. has carried out more than 135 air strikes against ISIL near Kobani to date, according to U.S. Central Command.
“Combined with continued resistance to ISIL on the ground, indications are that these strikes have slowed ISIL advances into the city, killed hundreds of their fighters and destroyed or damaged scores of pieces of ISIL combat equipment and fighting positions,” the command said in a statement.
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