Syria Denounces Turkey over Kobane Reinforcements

Syria accused Turkey on Thursday of a "flagrant violation" of its sovereignty, as Ankara allowed Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and opposition rebels to cross its border to battle jihadists.

"Once again, Turkey has shown its conspiratorial role... by allowing foreign forces and terrorist groups to enter Syria," said a foreign ministry statement reported by state television.

"This constitutes a flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty."

A delegation of peshmerga fighters crossed into the Syrian border town of Kobane Thursday to reinforce Kurds defending the town against the Islamic State (IS) group.

They followed a group of fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) who entered the previous day.

"Syria denounces and rejects this disgraceful behavior by the Turkish government and by its accomplices, who have been responsible for the Syrian crisis from the beginning," said the statement, referring to US pressure to allow the peshmerga and rebels access.

The regime of President Bashar Assad has systematically blamed Ankara -- a former ally -- as well as Washington and Gulf countries for the war that has ravaged Syria for more than three years.

The conflict began as a peaceful revolt demanding political change, but later morphed into a brutal civil war after Damascus unleashed a countrywide crackdown against dissent.