TURKEY HAS DROPPED its refusal to allow Kurdish fighters over the border to defend the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, saying it was now helping Iraqi peshmerga to cross the frontier in a major policy shift.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey had no desire so see Kobane fall to Islamic State jihadists who have been battling Syrian Kurdish fighters for over a month for control of the town.

The influx of the well-trained peshmerga fighters into Kobane could be a major boost for the Kurds, who are now being helped by US-led air strikes and air drops.

“We are assisting peshmerga forces to cross into Kobane,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

We have no wish at all to see Kobane fall.

The Kurdish Rudaw news agency reported that Turkey had approved the request from Massoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, for the peshmerga fighters to cross.

The switch came after the American military dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Syrian Kurdish fighters from cargo aircraft.

Cavusoglu did not comment directly on the air drops, saying only that Turkey was now “evaluating” the latest US move.

“We have been in full cooperation with the coalition. We want to be rid of all the threats in the region,” he said.

NTV television quoted sources as saying the transit of fighters was already in progress and would continue. It was not clear where they were crossing the border.

‘Turkey playing double game’

Turkey has until now refused to allow Kurdish fighters to cross its border to join the battle against IS militants for Kobane, fearing the creation of a powerful Kurdish fighting force straddling the border.

Turkish security forces have been waging a 30-year conflict with the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose battle for self-rule in the southeast has left 40,000 people dead.

However Turkey in recent years has built up strong relations with the Kurdish authorities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq which control the peshmerga forces.