Hundreds of Kurdish fighters entered Syria from Turkey and Iraq Saturday to defend Syrian Kurds from attack by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria forces.
An official in Iraqi Kurdistan said roughly 600 troops had entered Syria from Iraq, according to the Associated Press.
Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, said Friday that the Islamic State’s attacks in northern Syria, “threaten the whole entirety of the Kurdish nation and it has targeted the honor, dignity and existence of our people.”
On Friday, Turkey began allowing thousands of Syrian Kurdish civilians to enter the country. By late Saturday, officials estimated, more than 60,000 had crossed the border.
“Kobani is facing the fiercest and most barbaric attack in its history,” said Mohammed Saleh Muslim, who is the head of the Kurdish Democratic Union in Syria.
Nearly half of Syria’s population have become refugees or been displaced within Syria since fighting started three years ago.
Obama signed on Friday a short-term government funding bill that also authorizes and funds the training and equipping of moderate Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State.
