We have indications - Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told Agence France-Presse - that Iranian fighters have actually conducted attacks aboard their F-4 Phantoms.
These statements, therefore, would confirm the images issued by Al-Jazeera. In the movie, you would notice those that at first glance would look like old F-4 being attacked in the eastern province of Diyala, the same ones used by Iran.
Iranian ground forces are active in Iraq to provide assistance to the Shiite militia and the Baghdad government, but this is the first time that the United States has confirmed a Tehran air strike against ISIS.
Also according to Kirby, the attack was coordinated by the Iraqi government without any US support. The Allied tactical command is in Qatar. From the "Al Udeid Air Base" all American, British, Australian and Canadian "manned and unmanned" bombing missions against ISIS are coordinated.
Although there is no direct communication between the two countries, the Americans could easily monitor the flights on Iraq of the less sophisticated air fleet present in the Region. Iran has acquired its F-4 from the United States before the 1979 revolution that overthrew the country's pro-US monarchy.
Although "united" against ISIS, the United States and Iran remain deeply divided on the Syrian issue (in addition to the well-known divergences on Tehran's nuclear program). Iran itself continues to provide crucial military support for President Bashar al-Assad, while Washington has deployed its secret services in an attempt to try to establish a rebel force that can counter Damascus.
However, Iranian support for the Iraqi cause is beyond doubt. The Baghdad government, in fact, is led by the same branch of Islam (Shiism) and Tehran immediately intervened to help the government after Sunni jihadists invaded western and northern Iraq at the beginning of this year. Iran has also supplied Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft, 12,7 mm machine guns designed to penetrate armored vehicles and multiple rocket launchers.
Without forgetting, finally, the role of the Iranian special forces the "Quds Force" (the same involved in the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States Adel al-Jubeir with a car bomb and in the planned attacks in the Saudi and Israeli embassies to Washington), which under the leadership of General Qassem Suleimani, led a counterattack in Iraq during the summer that rejected ISIS militants from the main route from Samarra to Baghdad.
Suleimani, the 10 last June, would have flown to Baghdad after the fall of Mosul to work out a strategy "to protect Baghdad and its surroundings", according to the Hezbollah website Al-Manar.
Franco Iacch
(photo: Al-Jazeera)
