US Drops Weapons to Besieged Kurds

The US military says it has airdropped weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to Kurdish forces defending the Syrian city of Kobani against ISIS militants. The airdrops yesterday were the first of their kind and followed weeks of US and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani, near the Turkish border. US Central Command says C-130 cargo planes made multiple drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq. It says they were intended to enable continued resistance to ISIS efforts to take full control of Kobani. There were also 11 airstrikes in the Kobani area overnight.

Officials say the planes dropped 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition, and medical supplies, and it appears that "the vast majority" of the supplies reached the intended Kurdish fighters. The airdrops are almost certain to anger the Turkish government, which has said it would oppose any US arms transfers to the Kurdish rebels in Syria. President Obama called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops, an administration official says. (More Kobani stories.)