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Fight against Islamic state

Kurdish fighters destroy nine IS militants east of Syria's Kobani

The besieged city is waiting for the arrival of a military convoy with weapons from Iraq

© AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda

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Islamic State militants have anti-aircraft weapons — media

BEIRUT, 29 October. /TASS/. The Kurdish fighters has rebuffed Islamic State (IS) militants’ attacks at the eastern side of the Syrian town of Kobani (over 500km from capital Damascus). On Tuesday, Kurdish fighters destroyed 9 militants in an ambush, Al-Watan reported. Several Islamists were captured.

The siege of the Kurdish administrative center lasts for more than 40 days. Losses have exceeded 800 people on both sides. Most citizens (over 200,000 people) fled across the border into Turkey.

Iraqi Kurds sent a convoy with weapons for Kobani defenders through Turkey. It is expected to cross the Syrian-Turkish border and arrive in the city today. 155 militants of the Peshmerga forces (Iraqi Kurdish military forces) accompany a convoy. They will deliver 40 cannons and mortars, trucks and off-road vehicle equipped with machine guns, and emergency medical cars.

This act has a deep symbolic meaning. Kurdish fighters, who defend Kobani, are mostly composed of militants from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is considered as Syrian branch of the forbidden for separatism in Turkey Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Recently Ankara confirmed that it still considers PYD as terrorist organization.

The Kurds, in their turn, have accused the Turkish authorities, who have been blocking the delivery of military assistance for several weeks, of the "connivance of the IS."

According to regional observers, the allowance of Peshmerga convoy to enter Kobani will increase the role of the Syrian and Iraqi Kurds in opposition to the "Islamic state" in the international coalition against terrorism under the auspices of the United States.

On Tuesday, the US Air Force and its allies carried out four air strikes against Islamic State targets near Kobani. Besides, some mortal and artillery squads were destroyed alongside with military vehicles.

Tags

Syria Iraq Turkey Islamic State

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