Peshmerga troops travelling to Kobane cheered by fellow Kurds in Turkey
Kurdish troops en route to reinforce fighters battling Islamic State jihadists trying to capture the Syrian border town of Kobane applauded in Turkey
Iraqi peshmerga troops were cheered on Wednesday by fellow Kurds in southeastern Turkey as the fighters slowly made their way toward the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane to try to break a siege there by Islamic State militants.
But 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.
“We are waiting for the peshmerga. We want to see what weapons they have,” said 30-year-old Nidal Attur, who arrived in Suruc two weeks ago from a small village near Kobane.
He and other euphoric Kurds waited for hours along streets in Suruc to catch a glimpse of the peshmerga troops they consider to be heroes. Most were seeing them for the first time.
“Kurds will remember this moment in history. They will speak of ‘before and after Kobane’ from now on.”
After a rousing send-off from thousands of cheering supporters a day earlier in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil, the peshmerga forces landed early Wednesday at the Sanliurfa airport in southeastern Turkey.