Free Syrian Army fighters arrive in Kobani to battle Islamic State

A group of about 50 Syrian rebels entered Kobani from Turkey to join Kurdish forces defending the town against Islamic State, as a larger contingent of Kurdish reinforcements also headed for the area.

The arrival of the fighters from the Free Syrian Army was confirmed by Kurdish officials in Kobani, who said yesterday that Iraqi Kurdish fighters were also expected soon.

The northern Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga, arrived in Turkey yesterday and were feted by local Kurds as they headed by road toward the Syrian border, where they're due to cross into Kobani. The semiautonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq sent about 150 fighters, of whom half flew to the city of Sanliurfa near the border with Syria, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Their deployment is an effort to break the weekslong siege of Kobani by Islamic State, an al-Qaida breakaway group that has captured large areas of Syria and Iraq since June. Kurdish fighters in the city have held off the militants with the help of U.S. airstrikes and airdrops of weapons and other supplies.

Turkey agreed last week to let the Peshmerga cross into Syria via Turkish territory, though it has opposed arming the Syrian Kurdish groups defending Kobani. They are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which has fought for autonomy in Turkey since 1984 and is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey and the United States.