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 Washington said the arms had been supplied by Iraqi Kurdish
authorities and had been dropped near Kobani, which came under
Islamic State attack in September and is now besieged to the east,
west and south, and bordered to the north by Turkey.
Turkey has stationed tanks on hills overlooking Kobani but has
refused to help the Kurdish militias on the ground without striking
a broader deal with its NATO allies on intervening in the Syrian
civil war, saying action should also be taken against Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference
that Turkey was facilitating the passage of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga
forces which have also fought Islamic State when the militants
attacked the Kurds' autonomous region in Iraq over the summer. He
gave no details.
Turkey's refusal to intervene in the battle against Islamic State,
which has seized large areas of Syria and neighboring Iraq, has led
to growing frustration in the United States.
The policy has also provoked lethal riots in southeastern Turkey by
Kurds furious at Ankara's refusal to help Kobani or at least open a
land corridor for volunteer fighters and reinforcements to go there.
Ankara views the Syrian Kurds with deep suspicion because of their
ties to the PKK, a group that waged a decades-long militant campaign
for Kurdish rights in Turkey.
Earlier the U.S. Central Command said it had delivered weapons,
ammunition and medical supplies to allow the Kurdish fighters to
keep up their resistance in the town which is called Kobani in
Kurdish and Ayn al-Arab in Arabic.
The main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the YPG, said it had received
"a large quantity" of ammunition and weapons.
Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the YPG, said the weapons dropped
overnight would have a "positive impact" on the battle and the
morale of fighters who have been out-gunned by Islamic State. But he
added: "Certainly it will not be enough to decide the battle."
"We do not think the battle of Kobani will end that quickly. The
forces of (Islamic State) are still heavily present and determined
to occupy Kobani. In addition, there is resolve (from the YPG) to
repel this attack," he told Reuters in an interview conducted via
Skype.
He declined to give more details on the shipment.
The United States began carrying out air strikes against Islamic
State targets in Iraq in August and about a month later started
bombing the militant group in neighboring Syria.
However, the resupply of Kurdish fighters marks an escalation in the
U.S. effort to help local forces beat back the radical Sunni
militant group in Syria. It points to the growing coordination
between the U.S. military and a Syrian Kurdish group that had been
kept at arms' length by the West due partly to the concerns of NATO
member Turkey.
Washington has pressed Ankara to let it use bases in Turkey to stage
the air strikes, and a Turkish foreign ministry official said the
country's airspace had not been used during the drops on Kobani.
U.S. President Barack Obama gave advance notice to his Turkish
counterpart Tayyip Erdogan of its plans to deliver arms to the
Syrian Kurds, a group Turkey views with distrust because of its
links to Turkish Kurds who have fought an insurgency in which 40,000
people were killed.
"President Obama spoke to Erdogan yesterday and was able to notify
him of our intent to do this and the importance that we put on it,"
one senior U.S. official told reporters.
U.S. officials, speaking in a conference call, described the weapons
delivered as "small arms" but gave no details.
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Escalated U.S. air strikes on Islamic State in and around Kobani
have helped to slow its progress there in the last week. The Kurds
say the U.S. military has been coordinating the air strikes with
them, helping to make them more effective. The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, which tracks the war in Syria using sources on the
ground, said there had been two new air strikes on Islamic State
positions after midnight.
SITUATION REMAINS "FRAGILE"
In a brief statement, the U.S. Central Command said U.S. Air Force
C-130 aircraft "delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies
that were provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and intended to
enable continued resistance against ISIL's attempts to overtake
Kobani," using an acronym to refer to Islamic State.
The Central Command said 135 U.S. air strikes near Kobani in recent
days, combined with continued resistance against Islamic State on
the ground, had slowed the group's advances into the town and killed
hundreds of its fighters.
"However, the security situation in Kobani remains fragile as ISIL
continues to threaten the city and Kurdish forces continue to
resist," the statement said.
"We understand the longstanding Turkish concern with the range of
groups, including Kurdish groups, that they have been engaged in
conflict with," he added. "However, our very strong belief is that
both the United States and Turkey face a common enemy in ISIL and
that we need to act on an urgent basis."
The Turkish presidency said Obama and Erdogan had discussed Syria,
including measures that could be taken to stop Islamic State's
advances, and Kobani.
In a statement published on Sunday, it also said Turkish assistance
to over 1.5 million Syrians, including around 180,000 from Kobani,
was noted in the conversation.
In comments published by Turkish media on Monday, Erdogan equated
the main Syrian Kurdish political group, the PYD, with the PKK,
describing both as terrorist organizations.
"It will be very wrong for America with whom we are allied and who
we are together with in NATO to expect us to say 'yes' (to
supporting the PYD) after openly announcing such support for a
terrorist organization," Erdogan said.
Kobani is one of three areas near the border with Turkey where
Syrian Kurds have established their own government since the country
descended into civil war in 2011.
(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham, Warren Strobel and Tom Perry in
Beirut and Seda Sezer in Turkey; Editing by Sophie Walker)
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