Syria bombs militant targets in Iraq
Kerry warns other countries to stay out of conflict
BAGHDAD — Syrian warplanes bombed Sunni militants’ positions inside Iraq, military officials confirmed Wednesday, deepening the concerns that the extremist insurgency that spans the two neighbouring countries could morph into an even wider regional conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned against the threat and said other nations should stay out.
Meanwhile, a new insurgent artillery offensive against Christian villages in the north of Iraq sent thousands of Christians fleeing from their homes, seeking sanctuary in Kurdish-controlled territory.
The U.S. government and a senior Iraqi military official confirmed that Syrian warplanes bombed militants’ positions Tuesday in and near the border crossing in Qaim. Iraq’s other neighbours — Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — were all bolstering flights inside their airspace to monitor the situation, the Iraqi official said.
U.S. officials said the target was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Sunni jihadist group that in a blitz through Iraq has taken large swaths of territory it seeks to make part of a purist Islamic enclave across both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.
“We’ve made it clear to everyone in the region that we don’t need anything to take place that might exacerbate the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of tension,” Kerry said, speaking in Brussels at a meeting of diplomats from NATO nations. “It’s already important that nothing take place that contributes to the extremism or could act as a flash point with respect to the sectarian divide.”
Iran has been flying surveillance drones in Iraq, according to U.S. officials. The intelligence-gathering is in addition to the presence in Baghdad this month of one of Iran’s most powerful generals, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, who was there to help Iraqis bolster their defences and consult with leaders of Shiite militias that he has armed and trained.
The involvement of Syria and Iran in Iraq suggests a growing co-operation among the three Shiite-led governments in response to the raging Sunni insurgency. The U.S., Iran and Syria now find themselves with an overlapping interest in stabilizing Iraq’s government.
In a reflection of how intertwined the Syria and Iraq conflicts have become, thousands of Shiite Iraqi militiamen helping President Bashar Assad crush the Sunni-led uprising against him are returning home, putting a strain on the overstretched Syrian military as it struggles to retain territory recaptured in recent months from rebels.
Also, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said senior members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front based in the Syrian border town of Boukamal travelled to the Iraqi frontier town of Rabia on Sunday, where they pledged loyalty to ISIL.