WASHINGTON – On Sunday night two U.S. Air Force C-130s flew into Syria without fighter escort to deliver 27 bundles of weapons, ammunition and supplies to Kurdish fighters in the besieged town of Kobani, Syria, which has been holding out against fighters from the radical Islamic State (IS) group.
In a twist, US officials said the supplies were provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq.
“This was Kurdish arms, Kurdish ammunition,” insisted a senior administration official on Sunday night, adding that Washington saw the drops as “an opportunity to strike blows against ISIL … when we see opportunities to hit ISIL we’ll take them.”
U.S. forces have conducted more than 135 airstrikes against IS in the area around Kobani over the past week, claiming to have killed hundreds of IS fighters in the process, but have not been able to break the stalemate between the attacking forces and the Kurdish fighters holding the town, which sits up against the Turkish border.
There’s little chance that the operation will sit well with Turkish authorities, who have long battled with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, whom the Turkish government claims is fighting in Kobani.
Earlier in the day on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will continue to refuse to arm the Kurdish fighters across the border in Syria, warning that “it would be very, very wrong to expect” Turkey “to openly say ‘yes’ to our NATO ally America giving this kind of support. To expect something like this from us is impossible.”
President Obama spoke with Erdogan earlier in the day Sunday, and the leaders “pledged to continue to work closely together to strengthen cooperation against ISIL,” according to a release from the White House, but officials would not elaborate on what the leaders had to say about the American air drops.
Retired Marine Gen. John Allen and his team from DoD and the State Department recently held a series of meetings in Ankara with Turkish officials about the country taking a more active role in the military campaign in Syria, and Turkey already has agreed to train and equip a number of Syrian rebel forces.
Allen, however, speaking at the State Department on Oct. 15, refused to confirm reports that Turkey had agreed to allow the use of Incirlik Air Base for U.S. strikes into Syria.
But American officials, publicly at least, continue to remain relatively upbeat. The administration official said Sunday night that “combined with the activities on the ground we believe the strikes … have slowed ISIL’s advance into” Kobani.
