The United States Air Force dropped multiple packages of medical supplies, weapons and ammunition to Kurdish fighters in the Islamic State-besieged town of Kobani in Syria, officials said late Sunday.

In a statement released Sunday night, the U.S. military's Central Command in Tampa said three C-130 cargo planes airdropped 27 bundles of arms and aids that were supplied by the Kurdish regional government based in Iraq.

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Officials said the packages were intended to support the Kurdish militiamen resisting the bloody advance of the Islamic State militants in Kobani, a town bordering Syria's neighbor, Turkey.

Sunday's airdrops are the first direct intervention of its kind by the United States since the town was sieged four weeks ago. This followed urgent appeals by the heavily outnumbered Kurdish fighters for reinforcement arms and military personnel.

Official statements did not indicate where the cargo planes took off, but said operations began at 4 p.m. Washington time. The aircraft flew unaccompanied by fighter planes as U.S. officials did not believe the Islamic State militants were capable of anti-aircraft strikes.

The operation came after President Barack Obama and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone to discuss areas of cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State on Saturday, an unnamed White House official told the Associated Press.

Turkey, a NATO ally, announced early Sunday of its opposition to Washington's plan to send arms to the Kurdish fighters who the Turkish government has listed as belonging to an insurgent terror organization.

The Islamic State militants are keen to overrun the territory to crush the isolated pocket of resisting forces that prevent the jihadists from linking their captured territories in Syria and Iraq.

The decision to send Kurdish fighters supplies came during a weekend that has seen some of the fiercest exchanges of fires in Kobani.

U.S. commanders operating in the region fear that Kobani may still fall to Islamic State control despite the reinforcement mission. In which case, the militants would claim a symbolic victory resulting in bloody human catastrophes.

TagsU.S. Air Force in Syria, Kobani