ERBIL, Iraq
The last group of Kurdish peshmerga forces fighting Daesh in the Syrian city of Kobani left on Wednesday morning after their two-month mission ended.
The group of 124 peshmerga, the fourth batch sent by the northern Iraqi Kurdish administration since October last year, arrived in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa Tuesday night, and their plane took off for Iraq early Wednesday morning.
Northern Iraqi officials have said no more troops will be sent.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish northern region’s government expressed his gratitude on Wednesday to Turkey for allowing peshmerga forces to pass through its land.
"Turkey allowed the peshmerga to pass to Syria to save Kobani. That is why I want to thank Turkey. Turkey’s role is very valuable in that regard. We managed to protect Kobani from Daesh because of Turkey’s historical decision," Sefin Dizayi told The Anadolu Agency.
The fourth and last peshmerga deployment left its weapons and military vehicles in Turkey to be loaded on trucks and sent to Iraq.
After Daesh launched an offensive in September 2014 to capture Kobani – located only hundreds of meters away from the Turkish border – a group of 150 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga arrived in Sanliurfa on Oct. 28, 2014, to join fighters battling the extremist rebel group.
A second Peshmerga battalion reached the battle after traveling through Turkey on Dec. 3, 2014.
A third group arrived in Kobani on Jan. 16, 2015, from the capital of the Iraqi Kurdish regional administration, Erbil, via the Suruc district of Sanliurfa.
