Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday agreement had been reached on sending 200 Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq through Turkey to help defend the Syrian border town of Kobani against Islamic State militants.
He was speaking after Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers on Wednesday approved sending the fighters, marking the semi-autonomous region's first military foray into Syria's war.
"I have learned that they finally reached agreement on a figure of 200 (fighters)," Erdogan told a news conference in the Latvian capital Riga.
Islamic State, 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.
The United States has air-dropped weapons and medical supplies to Kurds in Kobani provided by Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Erdogan on Thursday 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.
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