New offensive: Syria rebels cross from Turkey to join Kobani battle

A group of fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army crossed into Syria from Turkey on Wednesday to join Kurdish fighters defending the border town of Kobani against Islamic State jihadists, a local Turkish official said. The official said 150 rebel fighters crossed overnight in several buses, though a the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number at 50 fighters. Meanwhile, about 150 Iraqi peshmerga troops arrived in Turkey from Iraq early on Wednesday and were expected to cross into Syria later in the day. Their deployment came after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga troops to cross into Syria via Turkey.

[Sending peshmerga and rebel forces are] the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don’t want to use ground troops.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in BBC interview

Meanwhile, in Iraq, security forces advanced to within 2 km of the city of Baiji in a new offensive to retake the country’s biggest oil refinery that has been besieged since June by Islamic State militants. Backed by Shi’ite militias and army helicopters, government forces have swept through a desert area to the west of Baiji, aiming to recapture the city 200 km north of the capital.

Middle East Kobani