Iraqi PM confirms Syria carried out airstrikes on militants

© Photo: AFP (Iraqi government forces on patrol in Ramadi, Anbar province on June 24)

Syrian forces carried out airstrikes against militants in Iraqi territory this week, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the BBC on Thursday, confirming earlier reports of the raid.

Maliki said that while Iraq did not ask for the attack – which took place on militant positions around the border town of al-Qaim on Tuesday – he "welcomed" any such strikes against the insurgents, led by the Sunni militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater #Syria (#ISIS).

The strikes came after insurgents took control of al-Qaim on the Iraqi side of the frontier, providing them a strategic route into conflict-hit Syria, where ISIS is also active.

Iraq’s government has struggled to hold back the insurgency and militants have overrun vast swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad in an offensive that has alarmed the international community, left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands.

The United States government and a senior Iraqi military official first reported the strikes by Syrian warplanes on Wednesday, though Syrian state media has denied the country was responsible for the attacks.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned against other nations getting involved in the conflict, saying it risked further destabilising the situation in Iraq.

“We’ve made it clear to everyone in the region that we don’t need anything to take place that might exacerbate the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of tension,” Kerry said, speaking in Brussels at a meeting of diplomats from NATO nations.

“It’s already important that nothing take place that contributes to the extremism or could act as a flash point with respect to the sectarian divide.” AFP