Israel Matzav

The United States' newest ally

It's come to this: The United States under Obama is allying itself with the Iranian mullahcracy to act against ISIS, because... after all... the anti-Bush can never act alone.

According to the sources, Khamenei gave the orders to General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds force that is a special operations unit of the Revolutionary Guards for international missions.

Soleimani was tasked with coordinating the moves with US, Iraqi and Kurdish forces, even though Iran has until now opposed US military involvement in Iraq. Recently he has been active helping Shi'ite militias strengthen Baghdad against the IS threat.

On Monday the northern Iraqi city of Amerli was captured by US and Iraqi forces, with pictures on the internet showing Soleimani in northern Iraq. BBC speculates this may mean the Iranian cooperation may have already begun.

While Khamenei has previously opposed US action in Iraq, US airstrikes have been proving effective in the country; recent airstrikes either by US or US-trained Iraqi forces on Thursday took out 18 IS leaders in Iraq, including an American jihadist leader.

Also on Thursday, airstrikes in Syria took out a top aide to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi along with a senior IS military commander, Abu Alaa al-Iraqi.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Barack Hussein Obama, Hassan Rohani, Iran, Iranian nuclear threat, Iraq, ISIS

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:59 PM