Apparent Iran strikes on Islamic State ‘positive’ - John Kerry

US secretary of state John Kerry called apparent Iranian air strikes on Islamic State forces in Iraq a positive step, as the Pentagon said it believed the first such attacks had been mounted.

“It’s self-evident that if Iran is taking on Isil [Islamic State] in some particular place, and it’s confined to taking on Isil and has an impact, it’s going to be - the net effect is positive,” Mr Kerry said in Brussels on Wednesday.

“But that’s not something we’re co-ordinating” with Iran, he added.

Apparent Iranian involvement in air strikes against the Sunni extremists in Iraq does, however, bring the Islamic Republic's role in the conflict closer to that of the Obama administration.

The US has not invited the Iranians to join the coalition against Islamic State, and Iran has said it would not join.

Military advisers

Iraqi prime minister Haidar al-Abadi said earlier this week that Iran has sent military advisers to his country to help in the fight.

While Mr Kerry declined to “confirm or deny” the reported air strikes, rear admiral John Kirby, the US Defense Department spokesman, said in an emailed statement that “we believe that Iranian military aircraft conducted air strikes into eastern Iraq in the last several days”.

Mr Kerry was speaking at a meeting in Brussels of representatives of 60 nations backing the US-led campaign against Islamic State.

A senior Iranian official earlier on Wednesday denied Iran had launched any such air strikes.

F-4 Phantoms

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US had indications Iran had used F-4 Phantoms to launch raids in the last several days.

An Iraqi security expert said the strikes took place 10 days ago near the Iranian border.

"It is true that Iranian planes hit some targets in Diyala. Of course the government denies it because they have no radars," Hisham al-Hashemi said.

Diyala is an ethnically mixed province, where the Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias, last month drove Islamic State out of several towns and villages.

A British-based analyst said footage on Al Jazeera of an F-4 Phantom striking Islamic State in Diyala was the first visual evidence of direct Iranian air force involvement in the conflict.

“Iran and Turkey are the only regional operators of the F-4, and with the location of the incident not far from the Iranian border and Turkey’s unwillingness to get involved in the conflict militarily, indicators point to this being an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force aircraft,” said Gareth Jennings of IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly.

Co-ordination questions

The prospect of US and Iranian militaries separately carrying out air strikes in the same country raises questions about the degree of advanced co-ordination that might be needed, even indirectly, to avoid a mishap.

A senior Iranian official said Tehran had no intention of co-operating with Washington.

“Iran has never been involved in any air strikes against Daesh [Islamic State] targets in Iraq. Any co-operation in such strikes with America is also out of question for Iran,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi prime minister Mr al-Abadi, also in Brussels for the meeting, said he was not aware of Iranian air strikes.

While Shia Iran and the US have been at odds for decades, they have a common enemy in Islamic State, the hardline Sunni group that has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria.

Mr Kerry has claimed the US-led coalition had inflicted serious damage on Islamic State, carrying out about 1,000 air strikes so far in Iraq and Syria, but that the fight against the militants could last years.

Reuters, Bloomberg