SURUC: Ten Iraqi peshmerga fighters entered the embattled Syrian border town of Kobani via Turkey on Thursday, the first from among a group of 150 Kurdish troops headed there, activists said.

The development followed heavy overnight clashes as Islamic State fighters unsuccessfully tried to capture the border crossing point, the only gateway in and out of the strategic Kurdish town besieged by the militants.

Kobani-based activist Mustafa Bali said the 10 entered Kobani first and that the rest will follow gradually later in the day because the border crossing point has been targeted by Islamic State fighters.

“The first 10 are now with the People’s Protection Units and they include doctors and fighters and the rest are expected to enter in the coming hours at night,” Bali said.

The People’s Protection Units, also known as the YPG, are the main force in predominantly Kurdish regions in northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 10 peshmerga fighters entered Kobani around noon through the Turkey-Syria border crossing. Remaining peshmerga forces are in a facility on the outskirts of the border town of Suruc, about 12 kilometers from the border with Syria, on a road that leads to the border crossing in the village of Mursitpinar. The mission of the peshmerga troops is to help Kurdish fighters inside Kobani try to break the siege by Islamic State militants who launched the attack on Kobani six weeks ago.

The ability of the small force to turn the tide of battle will depend on the effectiveness of their weapons and on continued US-led airstrikes against the extremists. Activists say there are currently some 1,000 Syrian Kurdish fighters and more than 3,000 jihadis in the Kobani area. Most civilians have fled.

On Wednesday, a group of 50 Syrian rebels entered Kobani — also from Turkey — in a push to help Kurdish fighters there against the IS militants. The rebels are from the Free Syrian Army and were meant to help the long-awaited Iraqi peshmerga fighters and the town’s Kurdish defenders. The FSA is an umbrella group of mainstream rebels fighting to topple Assad.

The political leadership of the Western-backed FSA is based in Turkey, where fighters often seek respite from battle. Despite dozens of US-led coalition airstrikes, the Kurdish fighters in Syria have been struggling to defend Kobani against the Islamic State militants since mid-September.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014