Syrian activists said a month of U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria has killed 553 people, mostly militants from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday the deaths include 464 Islamic State fighters and 32 civilians.

The group, which has tracked the violence in Syria throughout the country’s civil war, said it believes even more Islamic State militants have actually died but remain unreported because of difficulties in accessing some of the airstrike sites.

Also Thursday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said a deal had been reached to send 200 Iraq Kurdish peshmerga fighters through Turkey to help defend the Syrian border town of Kobani against Islamic State militants.

A senior official in Iraq’s Kurdistan region told Reuters the peshmerga would be equipped with heavier weapons than those being used by Kurdish fighters in Kobani, who say they need armor-piercing weapons to fend off Islamic State fighters.

Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat told Reuters that preparations to deploy to Kobani were going on, but it would not happen on Thursday.

Erdogan spoke after Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers on Wednesday approved sending the fighters. The move marks the semi-autonomous region’s first military foray into Syria’s war.

Airstrikes

Islamic State militants, keen to consolidate territorial gains in northern Syria, has pressed an offensive on Kobani even as U.S.-led forces continue bombing the militants’ positions.

U.S. and partner nation planes have carried out more than 200 airstrikes in Syria since September 22, as part of an expanded effort to halt the Islamic State group.

At least 300 coalition airstrikes have also targeted the group in Iraq, where the militants swept through large areas of the northern and western part of the country in recent months.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said a stray bundle of weapons and ammunitions that U.S. cargo planes intended to airdrop to Kurds in northern Syria did likely end up in the hands of Islamic State fighters.

Spokesman Steve Warren said Wednesday that 26 of 28 bundles dropped over Kobani were picked up by Kurds, but that two went astray. Warren said U.S. forces destroyed one, while the other was probably picked up by militants.

Video from a pro-Islamic State media group shows a masked fighter inspecting hand grenades, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers as he voiced delight.

But Warren said the weapons are not enough to give the militants any type of advantage as they battle Kurdish defenders for control of Kobani.

On Thursday, the battle for strategic town of Kobani was raging on as gunshots rang out throughout the morning and echoed across to the Turkish side of the border.

Refugees in Turkey told VOA that residents in Kobani said there was heavy fighting overnight. The sound of heavy firing of mortars, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), possibly heavy machine guns and some lighter weapons also was heard around mid-day.

Criticizes US airdrops

Earlier Wednesday, Erdogan said it was wrong for the United States to airdrop military supplies to Kurdish fighters. He questioned the logic of such an operation if only some of the weapons reach their targets.

Erdogan also said he has “difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic” for the United States, saying there are no civilians there.

On Thursday, he renewed criticism of the move, describing the main Kurdish force defending the town as a “terrorist” group.

“Did Turkey view this business positively? No, it didn’t. America did this in spite of Turkey and I told him Kobani is not currently a strategic place for you, if anything it is strategic for us,” he said of a telephone call with U.S. President Barack Obama at the weekend. 

Correspondent Scott Bobb contributed to this report from Turkey. Some material for this report came from Reuters.
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