Syria's armed forces, including its aircraft, have been providing military support to Kurdish fighters defending the town of Kobane besieged by jihadists, the information minister said.

"The state with its military forces and planes has been providing military and logistical support, and has supplied ammunition and arms to the town," said Omran al-Zohbi, in comments published in the Syrian press on Wednesday.

Although it is not part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Damascus "will continue to give military aid to Kobane at the highest level", he said.

"From the outset of the battle, the state has not hesitated to play its military, political, social and humanitarian role" because the town is "Syrian territory and its residents are Syrians", said Zohbi.

Syrian Kurdish forces in Kobane on the border with Turkey have been holding out against the IS, which controls swathes of territory in northern and eastern Syria and neighboring Iraq, with the backing of U.S.-led air strikes.

Fierce clashes since September 16 have left more than 700 dead, according to monitors, and sent over 300,000 people into flight across the border in Turkey.

Unconfirmed reports were circulating on social media that IS militants carried out a chemical attack on Kurdish forces in Kobani Tuesday night.

Journalists reporting from the ground as well as Kurdish officials were circulating photos of victims, who were said to have had difficulty breathing, teary eyes, swollen lips as well as burns on their skin. Doctors inside Kobane were requesting that the United States airdrop medical equipment in order to diagnose the cause.
Syria claims it destroyed IS 'air force'

The Syrian air force has claimed to have destroyed 2 of the 3 jets that were captured by IS militants and allegedly test flown over Aleppo last week.

According to Syrian TV, Omran al-Zoubi, Syria's information minister, said that the Syrian air force bombed the jets as they were landing in the eastern part of Aleppo province at Jarrah airbase. The third jet is still being searched for by the Syrian air force.

al-Zoubi said that the aircraft were seized by militants from the Syrian army in the province of Raqqa earlier this year, indicating that they could be from the Tabqa airbase. He continued on to say that the jets were old and suggested they were no longer useful as military equipment.

Videos were uploaded to Youtube last week showing aircraft allegedly flown by IS militants, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier had reported that IS militants flew three MiG fighter jets over the Jarrah air base with the help of former Iraqi air force pilots who had defected over to the group.

The director of the Observatory could not confirm that any of the aircraft were in fact destroyed by the Syrian air force.
Iraqi Kurds vote to send forces to Syrian border

Iraqi Kurdish regional lawmakers Wednesday approved the deployment of security forces to the Syrian town of Kobane to help Kurds battling the Islamic State jihadist group, the parliament speaker said.

Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, had sent a letter asking its legislature to give him the approval needed for the deployment.

"The Kurdistan parliament decided to send forces to Kobane with the aim of supporting the fighters there and protecting Kobane," Yusef Mohammed Sadeq said, according to footage of the session.

It was not immediately clear whether there would be any coordination between the Kurdish region and the federal government in Baghdad on intervening in Syria's bloody and protracted civil war.

The strategic town of Kobane, located near the Turkish border, has become a crucial battleground in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which also holds significant territory in Iraq.

Kurdish forces have played a leading role in combatting the group in northern Iraq after federal security forces collapsed under the weight of an IS-led militant offensive in June that overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi Kurdistan has its own security forces, government, borders and flag, but has been reliant on payments from Baghdad for funding.

The region's decision to independently sign contracts with foreign firms to develop its natural resources -- a move that could ultimately pave the way for independence -- has been a major point of contention with Baghdad.
Erdogan: US airdrops to Kobane 'Wrong'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday criticized as "wrong" the airdrops of ammunition and weapons by U.S. planes to Kurdish fighters battling jihadists in the Syrian town of Kobane.

He said the weapons had fallen into the hands of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- a Syrian Kurdish group that Ankara does not support -- and also Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

"It has become clear that this was wrong," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara airport before departing for a trip to Latvia and Estonia.

U.S. cargo planes earlier this week dropped ammunition, weapons and medical supplies to the Kurdish fighters who have been battling the jihadists for control of Kobane for over a month.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said at least one of the loads dropped had been picked up by the jihadists. A video purportedly showing this has surfaced online.

But Erdogan indicated that Turkey was equally troubled by the weapons falling into the hands of the PYD, whose armed branch the People's Protection Units (YPG) has led the fight against the jihadists.

Ankara sees the PYD as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose battle for self-rule in Turkey's southeast has left 40,000 people dead over three decades.

"Some of the airdrops have fallen into the hands of the PYD and ISIS," he said, using a different name for IS. "It's impossible to achieve results with such an operation," he added.

"Any support you would give PYD would benefit the PKK. And as Turkey we need to fight against this," Erdogan added.

(i24news with AFP)