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| U.S. Airdrop Aided Militants, Turkish President Says | U.S. Airdrop Aided Militants, Turkish President Says |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey criticized on Wednesday an American airdrop of supplies and weapons near the Syrian town of Kobani, saying the United States had mistakenly aided the militants besieging the town instead of the Kurdish fighters defending it. | |
| “What was done here was wrong,” Mr. Erdogan said at a news conference in Ankara, the capital. “Why? Because some of the weapons they dropped from the C-130s were seized by the Islamic State.” | |
| American military aircraft dropped ammunition, small arms and medical supplies into Kobani on Sunday. Before the airdrop, Mr. Erdogan said he opposed any United States assistance to the Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group in Turkey that Ankara and Washington regard as a terrorist organization. | |
| “It would be wrong for the United States, with whom we are friends and allies in NATO, to talk openly and to expect us to say yes to such a support to a terrorist organization,” Mr. Erdogan said on Sunday, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. | “It would be wrong for the United States, with whom we are friends and allies in NATO, to talk openly and to expect us to say yes to such a support to a terrorist organization,” Mr. Erdogan said on Sunday, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. |
| Video images circulated on Monday that appeared to show Islamic militants with some of the airdropped supplies. The Pentagon said the vast majority of the airdrops had reached the Kurdish fighters defending Kobani, but on Wednesday a Pentagon spokesman said some supplies might have fallen into the hands of the militants. | |
| Turkey announced on Monday that it would start to allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to cross into Kobani from Turkish territory to help defend the town. Mr. Erdogan said on Wednesday that he had proposed the idea in a recent conversation with President Obama. | Turkey announced on Monday that it would start to allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to cross into Kobani from Turkish territory to help defend the town. Mr. Erdogan said on Wednesday that he had proposed the idea in a recent conversation with President Obama. |
| “I have difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic for them, because there are no civilians there, just around 2,000 fighters,” Mr. Erdogan said. | “I have difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic for them, because there are no civilians there, just around 2,000 fighters,” Mr. Erdogan said. |
| The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday that the logistical arrangements for the pesh merga to pass through Turkey into Syria were still being worked out. | The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday that the logistical arrangements for the pesh merga to pass through Turkey into Syria were still being worked out. |