First Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria's Kobane: monitoring group

BEIRUT/SURUÇ

AA Photo

About 10 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the Syrian town of Kobane through the border crossing with Turkey on Oct. 30, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
   
The monitoring group said the remaining peshmerga fighters were expected to enter the town - known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic - "within hours".

Syria has accused Turkey of committing a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, state television said.
      
"Once again, Turkey has shown its conspiratorial role... by allowing foreign forces and terrorist groups to enter Syria," a foreign ministry statement said. "This constitutes a flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty." 

Two groups of Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters linked up in Turkish border town of Suruç.
      
A convoy of Peshmerga fighters carrying heavy weaponry and traveling by road arrived in Suruç after a painstakingly slow journey across Turkey, the reporter said.
      
There they were met by a second group of Iraqi Pershmerga who had arrived by air in the region's main city of Şanlıurfa in the early hours of Wednesday and then moved on to Suruç to await their comrades.
      
They were waiting in a storage facility in Suruç, 10 kilometers from the border, which was heavily guarded by Turkish security forces who were not allowing media to approach close.
      
It took the road convoy some 24 hours to make the around 400 kilometer journey from the Iraqi border to Suruç, held up along the way by crowds of Turkish Kurds who greeted their arrival.

A contingent of fighters from the anti-Damascus regime Free Syrian Army (FSA) early Wednesday also entered Kobane, boosting hopes the jihadists could be defeated in the battle for the town.