A group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters, numbering around 200, arrived in Turkey this week together with heavy weapons that will be deployed in the northern Syrian town of Kobani to assist local Kurdish fighters as they try to roll back advances by the Islamic State (IS).
The arrival of the peshmerga, however, has prompted questions about the ability of such a limited force to alter the military situation against IS, which also has heavy weapons and a large number of highly motivated fighters. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has indicated that the peshmerga will not engage in direct combat with IS, but will merely provide artillery support and training.