American C-130 aircraft dropped weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to help the Kurdish forces in Kobani, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey, that’s currently under siege by the Islamic State. The town almost fell to the Islamic State last week, with jihadists occupying significant parts of it, before the U.S. picked up the pace of air strikes against the group last week. The materials the U.S. dropped were supplied by the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, which has recently expressed willingness to help the Syrian Kurds but can’t logicistcally reach them.
The U.S. has now conducted 135 air strikes against the Islamic State around Kobani, according to the Pentagon. Interestingly, the dropping of weapons represents one of the most direct and significant steps the U.S. has taken to help the Syrian rebels in the conflict, which began more than three years ago. The U.S. has in the past given a small number of “vetted” Syrian rebels affiliated with the Free Syrian Army some aging anti-tank missiles. While Kurdish forces are some of the most pro-Western, secular, and effective elements of the Syrian rebels, the U.S. has been reluctant to help them for a few reasons (they have, in some cases, reached temporary peace with the Assad regime, and they are not party to the international peace process in Geneva).