Dubai: Iran has not launched any air strikes against Daesh targets in neighbouring Iraq, a senior Iranian official said on Wednesday.
“Iran has never been involved in any air strikes against the Daesh targets in Iraq. Any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of the question for Iran,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that the United States had indications that Iran had used F-4 Phantoms to launch the raids in the last several days.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson was however vague, refusing to confirm or deny the allegations.
“We do not confirm any reports concerning our military cooperation in Iraq against the [Daesh] militants,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said.
“No change has taken place in Iran’s policy,” she said, adding that Iran only offers consultations and military aid to Iraq within international regulations.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi was quoted by Bloomberg as saying he was unaware of the strikes.
“Did they have a role in that? That’s news for me,” Al Abadi said on Wednesday in Brussels, when asked whether Iran coordinated its air missions with the Iraqi government. “I am not aware there were Iranian air strikes.”
An Iraqi security expert said the strikes took place ten 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,” Hesham Al Hashemi said.
Diyala is an ethnically mixed province, where the Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militias, last month drove Daesh out of several towns and villages.
A British-based analyst said footage on Al Jazeera of an F-4 Phantom striking Daesh 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.
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news briefing on Tuesday the United States was not coordinating its military activities with Iran and added that it was up to the Iraqis to manage Iraqi air space.
“It’s the Iraqi air space and [Iraq’s] to deconflict. We are not coordinating with nor are we deconflicting with Iranian military,” Kirby said. Deconflict in military parlance means to avoid overlap.
The prospect of US and Iranian militaries separately carrying out air strikes in the same country raises questions about the degree of advanced coordination that might be needed, even indirectly, to avoid a mishap.
— With inputs from agencies
