ONLY ON AP PM of semi-autonomous Kurdish region says Iraqi Peshmerga in Kobani only "temporarily" скачать в хорошем качестве

ONLY ON AP PM of semi-autonomous Kurdish region says Iraqi Peshmerga in Kobani only "temporarily"

(2 Nov 2014) Iraqi Kurdish forces will only stay in Syria "for a temporary period", the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government said on Sunday. Nechirvan Barzani said that Kurdish peshmerga fighters will stay there to help reinforce fellow Kurds fighting to defend the town of Kobani from militants with the Islamic State group. Barzani said the involvement of the fighters in Syria isn't intended to achieve any political goals, but rather, is geared at the short-term goal of aiding fellow Kurds in the embattled town along the Syrian-Turkish border. Iraqi peshmerga fighters entered Kobani via Turkey Thursday - the first from a group of 150 Kurdish troops on their way into the town, activists said. The Islamic State group's offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages has killed more than 800 people, activists say. The Sunni extremists captured dozens of Kurdish villages and control parts of Kobani. More than 200,000 people have fled into Turkey as a result. Barzani said the American government played a role in influencing Turkey to allow Kurdish peshmerga troops to travel by land via Turkey to Syria as the conflict between Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State group intensified in the border town. Turkey had been reluctant to open the border to allow members of the Syrian Kurdish militia - known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG - to travel through Turkish territory to reinforce Kobani because it believes YPG is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in southeastern Turkey that has waged an anti-government insurgency. Barzani acknowledged that peshmerga fighters still face a difficult battle against Islamic State at home with fighters looking to retake towns across northern Iraq. He called upon the Iraqi military to offer more support to Kurdish forces battling the extremist group inside Iraq. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...