IRANIAN JET FILMED BOMBING ISIL
The Royal Air Force, American, Canadian and other allied forces are now fighting directly alongside former rival Iran, according to new footage of the war in Iraq.
An Iranian jet has been filmed for the first time bombing Islamic State positions during a battle for the town of Saadiya, northeast of Baghdad.
Iranian advisers are known to have been embedded with the Iraqi army and militia forces fighting Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
But this is the first proof that the Islamic Republic and the countries it famously termed the “Great and Little Satan” — the U.S. and Britain — are taking part in missions on the same side, along with Canada.
The footage was filmed on Sunday by an Al-Jazeera crew reporting on the key battle for Saadiya and Jalula, two towns northeast of Baghdad, not far from the Iranian border.
Saadiya was captured in the great surge Islamic State staged across much of Iraq in June and became a major jihadist base, while Jalula, a mostly Kurdish town with some Sunni Arab presence, has changed hands on a number of occasions.
Analysts from IHS Jane’s Defence identified the jet as a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, a relic of America’s pre-1979 alliance with the Shah’s Iran.
After Jane’s claims were drawn to their attention, Pentagon and British defence sources both confirmed that U.S. and RAF personnel operating in Iraq were already aware of the Iranian air force presence.
Iran is not part of the formal coalition drawn up to take on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but the Iranians, British and U.S. seem to have an informal arrangement over zones of influence.
According to regular British Ministry of Defence and Pentagon releases, most coalition air attacks in Iraq are either in the north or in western Iraq. The Saadiya operation was near the Iranian border to the east.
Nevertheless, the presence of Iranian forces fighting alongside the allies is a sign of shifting alliances in the Middle East and a thawing of relations, particularly as talks over the Iranian nuclear program continue.
This closeness is causing unease in majority Sunni countries, particularly in the Gulf, which regards Iran as a major destabilizing influence in the region — as do, officially, Britain and the U.S.