SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's foreign minister said on Monday that his country is helping Iraqi Kurdish forces cross into the Syrian border town of Kobani "to give support" to fellow Kurdish fighters defending the town against Islamic State militants.

The remarks by Mevlut Cavusoglu at a news conference in Ankara followed the announcement by the U.S. military that it had for the first time airdropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Kurdish forces in Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border.

Sunday's airdrops followed weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani. There was no immediate confirmation by Kurdish officials of the airdrop or what kind of weapons it included.

The airdrops are almost certain to anger the Turkish government, which has said it would oppose any U.S. arms transfers to the Kurdish rebels in Syria. Turkey views the main Kurdish group in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurd group known as the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terror group by the U.S. and by NATO.

But the U.S. military's announcement of the airdrops, coupled with the Turkish foreign minister's statements, is an unexpected development.

It suggests Turkey may be softening its stance on the issue of helping the Syrian Kurds.

However, Cavusoglu did not elaborate and it was not immediately clear whether Turkey was actually allowing Kurdish fighters across the border into Syria, after blocking them for so long.

"Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government announced that they are in cooperation with Turkey and the U.S.," Cavusoglu said. "Actually, we are helping peshmerga forces to enter into Kobani to give support," he added. He spoke at a joint news conference with Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Hamdi.

President Barack Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops on Sunday, one U.S. administration official told reporters. He would not describe Erdogan's reaction but said U.S. officials are clear about Turkey's opposition to any moves that help Kurdish forces, whom Turkey views as an enemy.

In a statement Sunday night, the U.S. Central Command said U.S. C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq. It said they were intended to enable continued resistance to Islamic State group's efforts to take full control of Kobani.

The U.S. said earlier Sunday that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the Kobani area. Activists said the U.S.-led coalition launched five new airstrikes shortly before the overnight airdrops of weapons, activists said Monday.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the "large amount of weapons and ammunition" airdropped by U.S. planes has reached the main Kurdish militia in Kobani.

The Kurdish fighters in Kobani have been picking up and moving the weapons since they were airdropped around dawn, said the Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground in Syria.

In recent days, much of the coalition strikes have focused around Kobani, which Islamic State group militants have been trying to seize since mid-September. Turkey has so far provided sanctuary to an estimated 200,000 Syrians fleeing from Kobani and dozens of nearby villages that were captured by the IS group.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.