An Iraqi soldier surveys the battlefield in Amerli.
According to Fars news agency an Iraqi army commander praised Iranians’ full support for Iraqi soldiers and nation ever since the escalation of the ISIL crisis, and said breaking of Amerli siege was indebted to Tehran’s unsparing assistance.
The Commander of Iraqi Army in Touz-Khurma-Tu and Amerli General Mustafa al-Ta’ei said if the ISIL terrorists had the chance to capture Amerli, all people in the city would have been killed by them.
The General further added that if “Iran had not assisted us Amerli siege would not have been broken.”
“At the time that Iran came to assist us no one in the world cared about the besieged people of Amerli,” he said.
On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi underlined Iran’s influential role in settling the regional problems and crises.
“Tehran’s key role in the fight against terrorism in the Middle-East region is quite evident,” the Iraqi prime minister said in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danayeefar in the Iraqi capital at the time.
Iran has on different occasions voiced support for both the Iraqi and Syrian governments in their fight against Takfiri militants. Iran has, however, stressed that it will not interfere militarily in Iraq, but promised to provide aid to the country in the course of its fight against the ISIL.
Last month, Iraq’s President Fouad Massoum said at the US Council of Foreign Relations that “Iran was the first country to provide weapons to Iraq to fight against the ISIL terrorists.”
Source: Fars news
See video: Amerli siege broken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXpbw_zfJpQ
Note: What exactly this “assistance” was is unclear. We are assuming it was weapons and intelligence information, and influx of Shia fighters (irregulars) as there is no verifiable reports of Iranian military troops presence on the ground in Iraq