A SENIOR Syrian Kurdish official has denied a report from Turkey's president that Syrian Kurds had agreed to let 1,300 Free Syrian Army fighters enter the border town of Kobani to help defend it against besieging IS, formerly Isis, insurgents.
President Tayyip Erdogan has long championed the relatively-secular Free Syrian Army in the complicated, faction-ridden insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has repeatedly advocated FSA intervention in Kobani.
Turkey's unwillingness to send its powerful army across the border to help secure Kobani has angered Kurds but appears rooted in a concern not to strengthen Kurds seeking autonomy in adjoining regions of Turkey, Iraq and Syria.
Mr Erdogan said 1,300 FSA fighters would enter Kobani after the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) agreed on their passage. But his comments were denied by Saleh Moslem, co-chairman of the PYD.
Mr Moslem said: "We have already established a connection with FSA but no such agreement has been reached yet as Mr Erdogan has mentioned."
During a visit to Estonia, Mr Erdogan said his side was working on details of the route of passage for the FSA fighters, indicating they would access Kobani via Turkey.
But Mr Moslem said talks between Abdul Jabbar al-Aqidi, top commander of the FSA, and the armed wing of the Kurdish PYD were continuing about the potential role of FSA rebels.
He said: "There are already groups with links to the FSA in Kobani helping us."
Mr Moslem said it would be far more preferable for the FSA to open a second front against IS in Syria. He said: "If they really would like to help, then their forces should open another front."
IS' rise has sent shockwaves through Middle East and Western capitals, galvanizing US-led air strikes to try to "degrade and destroy" the insurgents, as US President Barack Obama has put it.
US officials said on Thursday that Kobani, nestled in a valley overlooked by Turkish territory, seemed in less danger of falling to IS after coalition airstrikes and limited arms drops - but the threat remained.
Mr Erdogan has said Kurdish fighters from Iraq would be allowed to travel through Turkey to Kobani.
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