TURKEY allowed around 50 Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters to cross the border into Kobane yesterday to help defend the town from the so-called Islamic State (Isis).

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from Iraq are also en route to the region through Turkey after Ankara reluctantly bowed to international pressure to allow aid to the embattled autonomous Rojava state.

But Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration is still refusing passage to its own Kurdish population, since it fears links between Syrian Kurds and the Kurdistan Workers Party which has fought for decades for greater autonomy for Turkey’s oppressed Kurdish citizens.

And the choice to allow FSA troops in indicates a continued refusal to co-operate with Syria’s government in tackling Isis, only backing action by other rebel groups opposed both to the fanatical terror group and the Bashar al-Assad regime.

All attempts to aid “moderate” rebels in Syria so far have backfired as most of the weapons sent to them have ended up in the hands of Isis and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front, which dominate opposition to Assad.

Intelligence analysts say the two jihadist organisations could soon be working together in Syria, as al-Qaida has offered an “olive branch” to Isis — which broke away from it last year — arguing that they should not be fighting each other in the face of a growing international push to defeat them both.

Isis has not responded formally to al-Qaida’s suggestion, but sources in Syria say that fighting between the two groups has effectively ceased in many areas.

And United Arab Emirates officials warned yesterday that the group could be planning a link-up with the al-Shabab Islamist organisation in Somalia as well.

Isis fighters lined up 30 men in the town of Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, and shot them yesterday.

The victims were Sunni and were apparently tribal fighters allied with the Iraqi government who were captured when Isis overran the town a few weeks ago.

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com