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Iranian Airstrikes Target ISIS in Iraq Iran Targets ISIS With Airstrikes in Iraq
(about 3 hours later)
TEHRAN — Iranian fighter jets conducted bombing raids against Sunni extremists in Iraq last week, hitting targets near a 25-mile buffer zone that Iran has declared along its border, an Iranian politician, American officials and independent analysts have confirmed. BAGHDAD — When Iranian fighter jets struck extremist targets this week in Iraq, enforcing a self-declared buffer zone along the border, it was only the latest display of Tehran’s new willingness to conduct military operations openly on foreign battlefields rather than covertly and through proxies.
The bombing raids, along with Iran’s support for Shiite and Kurdish militia forces on the ground, illustrate the increasingly open role Iran is playing in Iraq, officials say. But they do not mean Iran is interested in cooperating directly with the United States, they say, even though they are fighting the same enemy and have some of the same allies. The shift stems in part from Iran’s deepening military role in Iraq in the war against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. But it also reflects a profound shift in Iran’s strategy, a new effort to exert Shiite influence around the region and counter Sunni powers such as Saudi Arabia.
The attacks on positions held by the militant Islamic State forces took place around the end of November in Diyala Province, where the battle front is closest to Iranian territory, according to the Iranian politician, Hamid Reza Taraghi. Analysts also say it follows a calculation that what Iran’s rulers see as a less-engaged United States will tolerate or even encourage their overt military activities.
He also confirmed the existence of the buffer zone, whose existence he said was accepted by the Iraqi authorities some months ago. While there is no direct coordination with the United States military in the region, there is what might be characterized as a de facto nonaggression pact, where the two sides stay out of each other’s way, as the Syrian government and the Americans do in managing airstrikes in Syria.
“We do not tolerate any threats within the buffer zone, and these targets were in the vicinity of the buffer zone,” said Mr. Taraghi, who is usually well-informed on security issues. He claimed that dozens of Islamic State fighters, whom he called terrorists, had been killed in the strikes. “We are flying missions over Iraq, we coordinate with the Iraqi government as we conduct those,” Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said on Tuesday. “It’s up to the Iraqi government to de-conflict that airspace.”
Mr. Taraghi said at least four F-4 jets had taken part in the airstrikes over a period of nine hours, flying eight sorties in and around the cities of Jolah and Saeediyeh, which are just beyond the buffer zone. Iran has offered weapons to the Lebanese army and supported the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen that have taken over the capital, Sanna, where on Wednesday a car bomb struck the Iranian ambassador’s residence.
“The operation was conducted in cooperation with Iraqi forces,” he said. Referring to Iran’s point man in Iraq, Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Mr. Taraghi added, “Normally General Suleimani would be in charge, but I have no particular information whether he was present or not.” In Syria, Hezbollah, the Iranian-supported Shiite militant movement, and the Iranian paramilitary Al Quds force, have kept President Bashar al-Assad in power. And in Iraq, Iran is cooperating at arm’s length with the United States, as the two rivals focus on fighting the Islamic State.
The general was formerly the commander of Iran’s paramilitary Quds force, and was a figure of some mystery. Now, though, he is regularly photographed on battlefields in Iraq, wearing a cap turned backward or surrounded by fighters from across the region, flashing guns and victory signs. Iran’s once-elusive spymaster, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of the Quds force who has spent a career in the shadows orchestrating terrorist attacks — including some that killed American soldiers in Iraq — has emerged as a public figure, with pictures of the general on Iraq’s battlefields popping up on social media.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and commanders of the Revolutionary Guards have said that they consider Baghdad and the Shiite shrine cities Kerbala and Najaf to be “red lines,” hinting that Iran would openly intervene in the fighting if the Islamic State made gains in those areas. The apparent shift in Iran’s strategy has been most noticeable in Iraq, where even American officials acknowledge the decisive role of Iranian-backed militias, particularly in protecting Baghdad from an assault by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
American military and intelligence officials confirmed that Iranian F-4 jets struck Islamic State targets last week in eastern Diyala Province, and said the bombing raids were the first the Iranians were known to have conducted against the militant group, also known as ISIS and ISIL. While Iran’s growing military role has proved essential in repelling the advances of the Islamic State, American officials worry that it could ultimately destabilize Iraq by deepening sectarian divisions. Iraq’s Sunnis blame the Iranian-backed Shiite militias for sectarian abuses, and are reluctant to join with the Iraqi government in the fight against extremists because of Iran’s influence.
“We are aware that Iranian F-4’s flew several missions last week in support of government of Iraq operations in the vicinity of Jalula,” said a senior American military official, who added that the Iraqi government informed Washington about the strike after it happened. Admiral Kirby said: “Our message to Iran is the same today as it was when it started, and as it is to any neighbor in the region that is involved in the anti-ISIL activities. And that’s that we want nothing to be done that further inflames sectarian tensions in the country.”
The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, indirectly confirmed reports about the strikes on Tuesday. “I have no reason to believe that they’re not true,” he told reporters. He said the Iranian airstrikes, which he indirectly confirmed by saying he had, “no reason to believe” the reports about them were untrue appeared so far to be limited.
The satellite news network Al Jazeera has broadcast footage in recent days that appeared to show an F-4 flying over eastern Iraq, according to IHS Jane’s Defense weekly, a British defense analysis company, and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The only nations in the region who now operate the American-built jets are Turkey and Iran, which obtained them from the United States before the 1979 revolution. The airstrikes occurred at the end of November in Iraq’s eastern Diyala Province, where Iran’s territory is closest to Iraq’s battlefields, Hamid Reza Taraghi, an Iranian politician confirmed. He also confirmed the existencer of the buffer zone, which he said was accepted by Iraqi authorities.
Several American officials said the coalition led by the United States, which flies dozens of missions daily in Iraq, does not directly coordinate with the Iranian government. Instead, they said, the Iraqi military acts as a middleman, to prevent conflicts in the air. “We do not tolerate any threats within the buffer zone, and these targets were in the vicinity of the buffer zone,” said Mr. Taraghi. He claimed that dozens of extremist fighters had been killed in the operation.
“We are flying missions over Iraq,” Admiral Kirby said. “We coordinate with the Iraqi government as we conduct those. It’s the Iraqi air space, and Iraqi’s to deconflict. We are not coordinating with nor are we deconflicting with Iranian military.” The backdrop to Iran’s growing military role in Iraq is the American-led air campaign against the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. The United States and Iran, once bitter enemies who fought a bloody shadow war in Iraq, now share the same goal – defeating the extremists. Often, it is a single Iraqi officer who is used as an intermediary between the Americans and Iranians, as they synchronize their efforts on the battlefield.
However, the United States operates Awacs command-and-control planes that track the movement of aircraft over Iraq, and American military officials at command centers in Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq almost certainly watched the Iranian airstrikes unfold. Working through intermediaries is not the most efficient way to conduct operations, and sometimes it can lead to awkward moments on the battlefield. Recently, for example, both coalition aircraft and jets from Mr. Assad’s forces bombed targets in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s capital. In Syria, the United States and Iran are at odds over Mr. Assad, with Iran his most important supporter and the United States preferring that he leave power.
“We maintain good situational awareness of the activity taking place in the airspace, over both Iraq and Syria, in order to ensure reasonably safe and effective operations by our forces,” said Col. Edward T. Sholtis, a spokesman for the Central Command’s air forces headquarters in Qatar. When the Islamic State stormed Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June and moved south toward Baghdad, President Obama took a measured approach, pushing for political changes before committing to military action. But Iran jumped right in. It was the first country to send weapons to the Kurds in the north, and moved quickly to protect Baghdad, working with militias it supported already.
Iran’s air force poses little threat to coalition aircraft. The Iranian air force and its outdated F-4s are “a third-rate air force irrelevant beyond their borders,” a senior American officer said, adding that “in the end, it’s more hype than impact.” “When Baghdad was threatened, the Iranians did not hesitate to help us, and did not hesitate to help the Kurds, when Erbil was threatened,” Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in a recent television interview here, referring to the Kurdish capital in the north.
Another American officer welcomed the Iranian strikes in Diyala because it meant that there were fewer airstrikes the coalition would need to mount. But Admiral Kirby echoed the sentiment of other American officials who were concerned that increased Iranian military involvement could incite radical Sunnis elsewhere and become a valuable propaganda and recruiting tool for the militants. He contrasted that approach to that of the United States, saying the Iranians were “unlike the Americans, who hesitated to help us when Baghdad was in danger, and hesitated to help our security forces. And the reason Iran did not hesitate to help us was because they consider ISIS as a threat to them, not only to us.”
“Our message to Iran is the same today as it was when it started,” Admiral Kirby said on Tuesday. “We want nothing to be done that further inflames sectarian tensions in the country.” Ali Khedery, a former American official in Iraq who advised several ambassadors and generals, said, “For the Iranians, really, the gloves are off.”
Of the growing regional role of General Suleimani, who has a residence in the Green Zone, the fortified center of Baghdad that houses many government ministries, palaces and embassies, Mr. Khedery was blunt. “Suleimani is the leader of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,” he said. “Iraq is not sovereign. It is led by Suleimani, and his boss Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” The ayatollah is Iran’s supreme leader.
The rivalry between the Iranian Shiite clerics and the Sunni leaders of Saudi Arabia has played out in any number of proxy contests around the region, especially in Syria and Iraq.
Normally, the United States and Iran are rivals, but the threat of the Islamic State has brought them closer to together. And, if the two sides can reach a deal over Iran’s nuclear program, more normal relations could follow, including close cooperation against the Islamic State. That was the point Mr. Obama was making in a letter to Mr. Khamenei urging him to sign off on the nuclear deal last month.
But the letter, as well as an earlier one wishing the Iranian leader a speedy recovery from surgery, may have backfired, one analyst said.
“When Obama sends letters to our leader wishing him a speedy recovery, to us that is a sign of weakness,” said one Iranian journalist closely connected to the conservative Revolutionary Guards. “During meetings the letter is discussed and we conclude: ‘Obama needs a deal. He needs us.’ We would never write him such a letter.”
That perceived weakness may be encouraging Iran to project power in a more prominent and public way, analysts have said.
Shiite politicians in Iraq are hopeful that a nuclear deal would lead to greater coordination between the United States and Iran in the war here, though experts say there is no indication Iran would welcome direct coordination. Sunnis fear that such a deal would give Iran legitimacy on the world stage, and embolden them to exert even more influence here and across the region.
In an interview this week, Hakim al-Zamili, an Iraqi politician and a Shiite militia leader, said that “if there were an honest coordination between U.S. and Iranian advisers, Iraq could have been liberated within a week.”
Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni lawmaker, said that an agreement between the United States and Iran would be bad for Iraq and mean that, “the Americans are handing over Iraq to Iran.”