New Peshmerga group to replace troops in Kobane: Turkish army

Uğur Ergan ANKARA

An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter fires at ISIL militant positions. AFP Photo / JM Lopez

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has confirmed that 150 Kurdish Iraqi fighters combatting Islamist jihadists in Kobane will be replaced with a new group that will also use Turkish soil to travel to the northern Syrian town.

Although precise details are not yet known, a group of around 110 fighters is expected to enter Kobane, passing through Turkey as the first group did, Turkish military sources told daily Hürriyet on Dec. 1.

They added the Peshmerga group that will return from Kobane will also pass through Turkey en route back to northern Iraq.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had announced that it would soon send replacements for its Peshmerga forces fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) along with Syrian Kurdish militants in the Syrian town located on the Turkish border.

“Our Peshmerga fighters in Kobane are tired. We will send new troops to the region,” said Cabbar Yaver, the secretary-general of the Peshmerga Affairs Ministry.

Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the Peshmerga’s new unit was waiting to depart with new weapons and ammunition.

The new troops are expected to pass through the districts of Silopi and Cizre in Turkey’s Şırnak province, Nusaybin and Kızıltepe in Mardin, and Suruç in Şanlıurfa before arriving in Kobane, the agency said.