Al-Jazzera footage showing Iranian F-4 Phantom jets striking ISIS targets in Iraq with precision bombs in broad daylight. Witnesses say the jets came in fast and low and blew the hell out of an ammo dump and command station before flying back toward the direction of Iran.
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Massoud Jazayeri on Tuesday dismissed as totally fabricated the western media reports quoting US defense officials as saying that “Iranian warplanes have bombed ISIL positions in Iraq in cooperation or coordination with the US-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS and IS).
“The Islamic Republic of Iran blames the United States as the root cause of unrests and problems as well as the terrorist actions of ISIL in Iraq,” Gen. Jazayeri told FNA.
The General complained that the infrastructures, cities and villages of both Iraq and Syria have been destroyed and their people have been massacred by ISIL as a direct result of the plots and supports rendered to the terrorist group by the US and a number of regional states.
Reiterating that Iran has no cooperation with any troops or coalition which is run by the US, the Number two man of the Iranian Armed Forces said, “Now the Iraqi nation along with its government, army and volunteer forces are in war with aliens and terrorists in a vast front and have achieved much success and the future of independent Iraq depends on this very cooperation and sympathy, and the United States will definitely have no room or place in the future of that country.”
His comments came after Israeli website Jerusalem Post claimed that the Iranian Air Force has bombed ISIL targets inside Iraqi territory in coordination with the US military which is leading the anti-ISIL coalition.
Experts I talked to say it is highly unlikely that Iranian fighter-jets would be operating in the same area where dozens of American warplanes, along with those of other air-forces of a half dozen other nations as part of the international coalition, who were also carrying out attacks against ISIS.
Also of note the general did not say Iran wasn’t responsible for the attack that is reported to have killed dozens of ISIS fighters, just that they didn’t “coordinate” it with the US military.
We will keep you posted on this as more information becomes available.
See related report:First footage surfaces: Iranian jet seen attacking ISIS targets in Iraq http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.629473