Iraq Kurd fighters leave base for Syria deployment

Dozens of Kurdish peshmerga fighters left a base in northern Iraq on Tuesday headed for the battleground Syrian town of Kobane, an AFP journalist reported.
The town on the Turkish border has become a crucial front in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts of Iraq in June and also holds significant territory in Syria.
The journalist saw dozens of military trucks leaving the base northeast of Kurdish regional capital Arbil from which officers said fighters bound for Kobane would depart.
Earlier, the fighters loaded machineguns and mortars into the trucks and packed bags for the trip.
"Forty vehicles carrying weapons, artillery and machineguns with 80 of the peshmerga forces will head to Dohuk (province) and then cross the border today," a Kurdish officer told AFP.
A further 72 will fly to Turkey early on Wednesday, the officer said.
Last week, under heavy US pressure, Turkey unexpectedly announced it would allow the peshmerga fighters to cross its territory to join the fight for Kobane.
The main Syrian Kurdish fighting force in the town, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), has close links with the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in southeast Turkey.
Ankara had previously resisted calls to allow in reinforcements.
Source: AFP