A Kurdish Peshmerga Fighter Holds A Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launcher
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter holds a a rocket-propelled grenade launcher as he takes up position in an area overlooking Baretle village (background), which is controlled by the Islamic State, in Khazir, on the edge of Mosul September 8, 2014. The Kurdish fighters are firing from an area they had retaken from the Islamic State, on Bashiqah mountain. September 8, 2014. Reuters

The ongoing fight between Islamic State fighters and Kurds, for the control of Syrian Kurdish town Kobani, is taking a new turn with Iraq's Peshmerga fighters formally entering the fray as ground forces. On Tuesday, the Peshmerga Kurds from Iraq started moving to Turkey to enter Kobani, backed by arms and ammunition.

More Kurdish fighters will be entering the besieged Kobani this week to reinforce fellow Kurds, who are struggling to defend themselves against ISIS, reported CNN quoting a a Peshmerga general Halgurd Hekmat. He said the fighters will fly to Turkey and from there they would cross over to Kobani.

Role of Ground Troops

Iraq Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the BBC that sending peshmerga was "the only way to help Kobani since no other country is ready to provide ground troops." The Islamic State launched a fierce offensive on Kobani and other Syrian villages in mid-September and killed more than 800 people. The Sunni extremists are now in control of many parts of the town. The fight for the town has led to the exodus of more than 200,000 people across the border into Turkey.

The U.S. led coalition has been carrying out dozens of airstrikes targeting the ISIS militants in and around Kobani. But Turkey as the border state with Kobani had to play a decisive role. With Turkey's nod of passage to 150 Peshmerga fighters authorised by the Iraqi Kurdish government, a change in the situation is coming up. It marks a shift in Turkey government's position, as it had been treating the Syrian Kurds defending Kobani as loyalists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK that waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is called as terrorists by it.

Following the movement of Peshmerga fighters to Kobani, a convoy of Toyota land cruisers and trucks with cannons and machine guns headed towards Iraq's Dohuk on its way to Turkey, reports Seattle Pi. Peshmerga soldiers carried Kurdish flags atop the vehicles and made victory sign before the cameras. They were cheered by scores of people from the road side, who held colourful Kurdish flags and photos of regional President Massoud Barzani while shouted their support.

US Welcomes

Jen Psaki, spokesperson of the U.S. State Department described the development as "certainly encouraging " and hoped it would provide the much-needed support for the Syrian Kurds. Idriss Nassan, a Kurdish official from Kobani, told The Associated Press the Peshmerga command is in direct touch with the Syrian Kurdish force known as the Peoples' Protection Units, or YPG .