Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, to cross its border with Syria to help fight the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group that has besieged the Syrian town of Kobani for more than a mon

Turkey will allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, to cross its border with Syria to help fight the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group that has besieged the Syrian town of Kobani for more than a month, the Turkish foreign minister announced Monday.

The decision represents an important shift by the Turkish government, which has angered Kurdish leaders and frustrated Washington for weeks by refusing to allow fighters or weapons to cross its border in support of the Kurdish fighters defending the town. 

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said his government was “helping the peshmerga cross over to Kobani.”

The announcement, along with an American decision to use military aircraft to drop ammunition and small arms to resupply Kobani, reflected escalating international pressure to push back Islamic State militants. The militants have recently lost momentum after appearing for a while to be close to routing the town’s defenders.