Iraqi PM says supports Syria border crossing airstrike

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of Iraq has said he supports an air strike on Islamist militants at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.

He told the BBC that Syrian fighter jets had bombed militant positions on the Syrian side of Qaim, which straddles the two countries' border. While Iraq did not ask for the raid, he added, it "welcomed" any such strike against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

ISIS and its Sunni Muslim allies have seized large parts of Iraq this month.

The Iraqi government has struggled to hold back the militants' advance from the north and west, and has also been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Muslim leaders have close links.

The U.S., which also backs the government, has stressed that the militants can only be defeated by Iraq's own forces.

Maliki is seeking to form a new government but has rejected calls to create an emergency coalition which would include all religious and ethnic groups.

Speaking to the BBC in his first interview for an international broadcaster since the crisis started, Maliki said: "Yes, Syrian jets did strike Qaim inside the Syrian side of the border.

"There was no co-ordination involved. But we welcome this action. We actually welcome any Syrian strike against Isis... But we didn't make any request to Syria. They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours and the final winners are our two countries."

He also said that Iraq had bought a number of used Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia and Belarus. He said the aircraft could be flying missions in Iraq "within a few days". The U.S., he added, kept delaying the sale of F-16 jets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the crisis with Maliki by phone last week, the Kremlin reported on its website at the time. Putin confirmed his "full support" for the government's efforts to rid Iraqi territory of "terrorists", it said, without giving details.

Maliki said on Wednesday, June 25, that forming a broad emergency government would go against the results of April's parliamentary elections, which were won by his alliance of Shia parties.

His political rival, Ayad Allawi, had proposed forming a national salvation government.

Reports say a unit of al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, pledged allegiance to Isis in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal, near the Iraqi border.

The Nusra Front, along with other rebel groups, has been fighting in Syria against Isis, which it sees as harming its cause with its brutality and extremism.