Recent Iran airstrikes in Iraq help drive Islamic State from 2 towns
Iranian warplanes have launched several airstrikes in recent days against Islamic State militants in eastern Iraq, U.S. and Iranian officials said Tuesday, the latest sign that America's longtime adversary is conducting a parallel but largely unacknowledged military campaign in the conflict.
At least some of the bombing runs were by F-4 Phantom jets, American-built warplanes provided to Tehran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a close U.S. ally.
In the shifting political landscape of the latest Iraq war, Tehran and Washington are in effect aligned on the same side and are conducting dual but separate military operations to back the beleaguered Baghdad government.
The U.S. and Iran have sent trainers and advisors to assist pro-government forces struggling against the Sunni Muslim fighters who swept into Iraq from Syria during the spring and summer. Iran's use of airstrikes marks an escalation of its role.
But U.S. and Iranian officials have repeatedly disavowed any direct coordination on military operations and have said little in public about the recent airstrikes.
Four Iranian jets attacked Islamic State positions during an offensive in Iraq last month to retake two towns, Saadiya and Jalawla, less than 20 miles from the Iranian border in the eastern province of Diyala, said Hamid Reza Taraghi, a conservative Iranian politician who is well informed on military matters.
"Iran regards the area as a buffer zone and does not tolerate any military threats within that buffer zone," Taraghi said in an interview in Tehran. He said Iraqi officials "asked us to be quiet about it."
Iraqi officials also have remained publicly silent about the airstrikes, although Baghdad approved the operation and ensured that the airspace was free of American or other coalition warplanes, said two U.S. military officials who declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
There have been "a few" recent Iranian airstrikes, one of the officials said.
"We are not coordinating with the Iranians," the official added. "Iraq owns the airspace."
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Recent Iran airstrikes in Iraq help drive Islamic State from 2 towns