SANLIURFA, Turkey
The first batch of Iraqi Peshmerga forces that were sent to fight in the Syrian town of Kobani in October through Turkey have returned to Iraq, official sources said.
According to sources, the Peshmerga forces arrived at the Erbil International Airport via a private plane from Turkey’s southeastern Sanliurfa province Thursday.
Erbil is the capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.
The batch was replaced by fresh Peshmerga troops Tuesday.
The Iraqi Peshmerga fighters in Kobani are fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish groups against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or the ISIL terrorists.
The Iraqi army and Peshmerga have been battling the ISIL in Iraq since mid-June, when the terrorists took control of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. The militant group is now said to be in control of large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
www.aa.com.tr/en
