Report: Kurdish troops head to Syria to face ISIS

[Geee]

The Hill:

Kurdish troops are heading into Syria to confront militants fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

 

ISIS forces have ravaged the Kurdish region of northern Iraq this summer, toppling towns and pushing tens of thousands of Kurds into neighboring Turkey.

 

This weekend, hundreds of Kurdish soldiers from both Iraq and Turkey crossed into Syria's Kobani region to take on the ISIS forces, according to the AP.

"Kobani calls on all those who defend humane and democratic values … to stand by Kobani and support it immediately," Mohammed Saleh Muslim, head of Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union, told the AP. "The coming hours are decisive."

The movement comes as President Obama has laid out plans to train and equip another group of fighters – the Syrian Free Army – in the battle against the ISIS terrorist group. Congress this week granted the administration new powers to help those rebels, though it remains unclear how long the training missions will take – or how successful they'll be in eradicating the ISIS threat.

Obama on Wednesday will be in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly in an effort to rally more international support in the fight against ISIS. While the United States is willing to lead that battle, Obama has said, the rest of the world must step up, as well.

[Valin]

http://youtu.be/DY-3IO0QuiA