Erdoğan Says 200 Peshmerga From Iraq To Enter Kobani

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that about 200 Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq will get assistance from Turkey to cross into the Syrian town of Kobani from Turkish territory to fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

"I have learned that they have finally reached an agreement on a figure of 200 [fighters]," Erdoğan told journalists during a press conference in Riga, Latvia.

Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers on Wednesday approved sending peshmerga fighters to Kobani to fight against ISIL.

In a major policy shift for Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Monday announced that Turkey will be assisting the peshmerga to cross into Kobani from Turkish territory. The Financial Times newspaper reported the story on Monday as “Turkey's U-turn.” But Erdoğan told the press that it was his idea to assist the peshmerga to cross into Kobani to fight against ISIL, refuting claims that the reason for the policy change is US President Barack Obama's call to Erdoğan on Saturday.

An official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Thursday that the peshmerga would be equipped with heavier weapons than those being used by Kurdish fighters in Kobani, who say they need armor-piercing weapons to fend off ISIL, according to Reuters.

Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat said preparations to deploy to Kobani were going on, but it would not happen on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The US over the weekend air-dropped weapons, munitions and medical supplies to the Kurdish forces fighting against ISIL. The supplies were provided by the KRG, according to American officials.

Erdoğan on Thursday criticized the US aid to the Kurdish forces, saying that the air-dropped aid has ended up in terrorists' hands.

TSK plans to expand military zones for peshmerga

In the meantime, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will be expanding the military's “forbidden zone” at the Syrian border, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Thursday.

According to Cumhuriyet, the TSK has asked the government to expand the zones forbidden to any military but for the TSK, so as to cover the areas that the peshmerga will use as it crosses into Kobani to fight against the ISIL militants.

The media will not be allowed to view the peshmerga as they cross, and property inside the “forbidden zones” will be expropriated if necessary, the daily reported. The area will be called “the military's secondary forbidden zone.” Security for the first-degree “forbidden zone” will be provided by the TSK, but security for the “secondary forbidden zone” will be taken care of by the police or gendarmerie. The width of the existing zone at the border is about five to 10 kilometers from the Syrian border inside Turkey, and the additional secondary zone is planned to be 10 more kilometers.

The move requires a Cabinet decision, Cumhuriyet reported.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)