US makes first arms airdrops to Kobane’s Kurds

The U.S. military said Sunday it airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish forces defending the Syrian border town of Kobane against fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The airdrops Sunday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobane, near the Turkish border. 

In a statement Sunday night, U.S. Central Command said U.S. C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq.

It said the drops were intended to enable continued resistance to Islamic State efforts to take full control of Kobane. Kurdish forces on Thursday had called for more weapons in order to push extremists back from the vulnerable town.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops Sunday, one administration official told reporters. He would not describe Erdogan's reaction but said U.S. officials are clear about Turkey's opposition to any moves that help Kurdish forces that Turkey views as an enemy.

In a conference call with reporters after Central Command announced the airdrops, senior administration officials said three C-130 planes dropped 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition and medical supplies.

One official said that while the results of the mission are still being assessed, it appeared that "the vast majority" of the supplies reached the intended Kurdish fighters. That official also said the C-130s encountered no resistance from the ground in Syria during their flights in and out of Syrian airspace. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

One of the administration officials said the airdrops should be seen as a humanitarian move. He said U.S. officials believe that if Kobane were to fall, the Islamic State fighters would massacre Kurds in the town.

Another administration official said "you might see more" U.S. resupply missions to benefit the Kurdish fighters in Kobane in the days ahead.

Earlier Sunday, the U.S. said that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the Kobane area.

The airstrikes coincided with the fiercest fighting in days which shook Kobane overnight as fighters from ISIL attacked Kurdish defenders with mortars and car bombs, sources in the town and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

ISIL, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, fired at least 48 mortars at Kurdish parts of the town on Saturday and some of the shells fell inside nearby Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said four more mortars were fired on Sunday.

"Last night there were clashes all across Kobane ... This morning the clashes are still ongoing," a Kurdish female fighter said.

The month-long battle for Kobane has ebbed and flowed. A week ago, Kurds said the town would soon fall. The United States and its coalition partners then stepped up airstrikes on ISIL, which wants to take Kobane in order to strengthen its position in northern Syria.

The coalition has been bombing ISIL targets in Iraq since August and extended the campaign to Syria in September after ISIL.

Raids on ISIL around Kobane have been stepped up over the past week after warnings from Kurds that the town would fall. The fate of Kobane is seen as an important test for Obama’s campaign against the armed group. The airstrikes have allowed Turkish fighters to recapture territory for ISIL, but clashes are still raging in the streets of Kobane.

NATO member Turkey, whose forces are ranged along the border overlooking Kobane, is reluctant to intervene. It insists the allies should also confront Assad to end Syria's civil war, which has killed close to 200,000 people since March 2011.

The Observatory reported ISIL detonated two car bombs Kurdish positions on Saturday evening, leading to casualties. A cloud of black smoke towered over Kobane on Sunday.

A fighter from one of the female units of the main Syrian Kurdish militia in Kobane, YPG, said Kurdish fighters were able to detonate the car bombs before they reached their targets.

The Observatory said 70 ISIL fighters had been killed in the past two days, according to sources at the hospital in the nearby town of Tel Abyab, where ISIL bodies are taken.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify these reports.

The Observatory said some Syrian Arab fighters from the Revolutionaries of Raqqa Brigade, who are fighting alongside Kurdish fighters, had executed two ISIL captives.

"One was a child of around 15 years old. They shot them in the head," he said.

ISIL have also used executions throughout their campaigns in Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of enemy combatants and civilians who oppose their cause, according to ISIL videos and statements.

Welat Omer, a doctor caring for the few remaining civilians in Kobane, told Reuters by telephone that he was looking after 15 patients, including children and the elderly.

“We need medicine, including antibiotics and milk for the children, and medicine for the elderly, who have heart conditions, diabetes and high blood pressure,” Omer said.

Hundreds of thousands have fled ISIL’s advance. Turkey hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including almost 200,000 Syrian Kurds from Kobane.

Ankara has refused to rearm Kurdish fighters, who say they are at huge disadvantage in the face of Islamic State's weaponry, much of it seized from the Iraqi military when the militants took the city of Mosul in June.

Turkey views the YPG with suspicion for its longstanding links with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey and has been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Erdogan was quoted in the Turkish media on Sunday as saying Ankara will never arm the YPG through its political wing, the PYD.

"There has been talk of arming the PYD to establish a front here against Islamic State. For us, the PYD is the same as the PKK — it’s a terrorist organization," he was quoted as saying.

This stance has sparked outrage among Turkey's own Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the population. Riots in several cities earlier this month left more than 35 people dead.

Al Jazeera and wire services