Friday, December 5, 2014

Iran Confirms It Carried Out Air Strikes in Iraq - UPDATE

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour said in an interview with The Guardian on Friday that the Islamic Republic did indeed conduct air strikes against ISIL positions in Iraq.

Last week, a footage shot by Al Jazeera showed an Iranian F-4 Phantom fighter jet on Iraqi skies, providing close air support to the Iraqi military and Shia militias near the town of Saadiya near the Iranian border. Iranian military officials at first refused to confirm, and indeed denied that Iran air force had conducted combat missions in Iraq.

Rahimpour’s conformation of the airstrikes, although coming as no surprise to Iran watcher, does confirm observations that IRIAF played a major role in liberation of the towns of Saadiya and Jalula in late November.

Rahimpour added that Iranian airstrikes against ISIL were coordinated with Iraqi officials, but not with the U.S. military. He did not say if Iraq could have played the coordinating role between Iranian and U.S. forces.

UPDATE: The speaker of Iranian Majlis, Ali Larijani, on Saturday denied that IRIAF fighter jets were involved in combat operations in Iraq. Apparently the Iranian officials cannot make a collective decision on how to message their air force's role in anti-ISIL war. They might be afraid that such admission could also be interpreted as coordination of their anti-ISIL campaign with U.S. forces in Iraq, but having already said at the highest level that the U.S. is behind ISIL's advances in the region. 

File photo: Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) F-4E Phantom II fighter jets during a flyover in Tehran; 18 April 2010 (Behrouz Mehri/Mehr News Agency)

18 comments:

Paul Iddon said...

Any confirmation about who they were supporting on the ground? I suspect it was the Badr Organization working in tandem with the ISF.

Anonymous said...

Iran has supported the Badr support and Kata’ib Hezbollah which has about 4,000 fighters (Iraqi intelligence puts the figure closer to 1,000 full time regulars and rest irregulars as needed) that are highly experienced from fighting in Amerli, Samara, but also have past combat experience fighting with Hezbollah in Syria. The Shia militias with limited Iranian Qods Force support are doing the heavy lifting in Northeastern Iraq on the Mehran-Mandali-Khanaqin axis (the only real border access to Iran) and it is Iranian logical strategy not to let the ISIL terrorists within artillery or rocket range of Iranian border. The IRIAF and IRGCAF airstrikes are meant to stall and decimate ISIL before they become a threat to Iran. By all accounts the strategy has been successful and means that the Shia militias are back in control, filling in the military vacuum the ISF had left when they fled the ISIL initial surprise attack. Now the Shias are back– but this time as protectors of the people, with the government heavily relying on them. It also brings another new important military and political element to Iraq – the increasing reliance and influence of Iran, the Shia regional giant. It also highlights the fact that Iran will not hesitate to use the full force of its military to secure its borders and interests if the need arises.

Mark Pyruz said...

Memories of the Shah illicit emotional responses in Iranians. Most are certain he was a villain. But one thing has to be conceded about the man: he knew his airplanes. (The joke back then was the Shah kept a copy of Aviation and Space Weekly for his bedside reading.)

It was the Shah's air force that defended Iran against Saddam's war of aggression. And now it's the Shah's Air Force again that's executed combat missions against ISIL terrorists.

There's no replacement for buying the best, and the Shah did indeed buy the best combat planes during the 1970s. As it remains so today, the best back then were American-made.

Paul Iddon said...

I remember reading that it was also said of him that he used to read Jane's Defense Weekly as if it were a glossy shopping catalog.

Anonymous said...

@Mark, so delicately formulated....Thank you!
Viva IRIAF, still the best trained and the masters of mission planning and execution in the region no matter the hardwar they are flying. The excellence of operations with regards to the staff is still exemplary. And bear in mind that upgraded F-14s and Mig-29s (no details about the upgrades) will match the F-16s and F-15s in the region without any extra effort... this is something the other side is well aware of and that is the reason they are waiting for their beloved F-35 to be delivered. But the moment that is done Russia will provide Iran with Su-35 so the balance will not be disturbed :-)
and I am still not taking Iran's new domestic birds which will soon start flying...

Anonymous said...

http://media.jamnews.ir/2222(24).jpg

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 4:51 PM

the IRIAF drivers are far from the best trained pilots in the region and they're driving old planes or junk.

Anonymous said...

I would not count on the duplicitous Russians too much as they are totally controlled by the Zionists and reneged on the S-300 deal and kept the $1 billion Iran paid, they will hardly sell any warplanes without US/Zionist approval. Even their old "ally" India is looking to France and the west for weapons. Iran's best bet is China or France too.

Anonymous said...

There has been a fair bit of discussion about the state of the Iranian Air force and the fact that ageing Phantom F-4 were used in the bombing operation. So much so that the focus has been lifted from the end result to the “means for an end”. As I see, the bombing was successful and helped Iraqis capture what they wanted. Whether this would have been achieved with more modern aircraft F-14, F-24, F-64 whatever, is irrelevant. The fact that it did what is was written on the tin (so to speak) indicates that it fulfilled its role. Now I am not any military expert etc but for a an observer like myself the operation indicated that Iran can take its air force out of its borders where necessary and is certainly capable of that. Whether in an attacking scenario Iran will rely on missiles and drones, it is really another matter. According to https://medium.com/war-is-boring/is-the-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-the-new-f-4-75aee4a354bc, they are questioning whether the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the New F-4? Ok fair enough rather than digital electronics with voice over, an F-4 pilot has to go through the analogue dials and needles to achieve the same. However, a bomb is a bomb and the nature of attack stills remains the same after 50 years. Job done, well done

Nader Uskowi said...

In this instance, the IRIAF was operating on non-contested skies.

Anonymous said...

And who would the "potential contesters" be? Saudi Arabia? UAE? Qatar? Kuwait? or Israel? I still bet they would not want to meet hungry Iranian birds, especially as Iran has a range of different birds in its arsenal each upgraded in ways which the enemy is not fully aware of. How can you make a mission planning against an air force you have not full understanding of?

Anonymous said...

Precisely. The IRIAF was operating where they would knew fully well that ISIL gang did not have proper air defense. Today Israel attacked Syria using its air force. They could have done that I bet with F-4 as well.

Anonymous said...

" How can you make a mission planning against an air force you have not full understanding of? "

by knowing that the Iranian pilots have limited training and limited flying time and by knowing that your own pilots are far better trained and are piloting far more advanced air craft.

the Iranian tiny air force would be quickly destroyed by the Indians or Israelis or the air forces of Germany, France or Britain.


I wouldn't even insult the US by suggesting that the Iranian pilots would scratch even one US warplane before the entire Iranian air force was atomized. it's doubtful that the Iranians would even get off a shot.

Anonymous said...

For anon 4:41 ... One USA general has said UAE's air force alone could wipe out Iran's in air combat...should we remind you...UAE is not alone. KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman would join the pummeling of Iran's air force...and if neccessary USA would assist in decimating the remnants of akhoond's air force. Are you seriously suggesting that a little improvement here and there on a 1959 F-4, Monkey Model Mig-29A B.12 and Monkey model J-7 (Mig-21 copy) ...would enable the akhoond air force to defeat the GCC + USA? You are not thinking straight.

Anonymous said...

@AnonymousDecember 7, 2014 at 7:20 PM

"the Iranian tiny air force would be quickly destroyed by the Indians or Israelis or the air forces of Germany, France or Britain."

Fair enough, with that said, I would love to listen to your theories about how exactly any of the quoted air forces (bar maybe the Indians) would be able to project enough forces to Iran in order to inflict that kind of damage to its military branches. We have yet to see the Israelis walk the walk of their talk. And in any such serious engagements, Iran would make massive use of its strategic arsenal of IRBMs and SRBMs, and everybody in the region knows that.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius publicly stated that his country cannot undertake a major war effort against even weakened Syria without logistical support from the US and NATO. Would you happen to have a surprise solution in stores to offer him ?

The US by contrast certainly has the means of defeating the IRIAF swiftly and this without engaging its own air-forces, relying quasi-exclusively on stand-off weaponry to do most of the job, but that would probably not prevent Iranian missiles forces to inflict devastating and unacceptable damage to every piece of strategic infrastructure in and around the PG in the event of a total war in which the regime would have nothing left to loose, Leon Panetta himself repeatedly acknowledged that through his public sessions.

@Mr. Uskowi : could you please tell us what exactly was the relevancy of your remark ? the Israeli air force actually hasn't operated in any contested environments whatsoever for the past couple decades or so, why have we never seen you implying that its ability is thus lower than displayed ? has any coalition air-force to deal with advanced djihadist C3I networks of integrated air-defense when confronting ISIS ? there is more than enough evidence that point to at least a partially successful, gradual modernization of Iran's air-to-ground weaponry and the associated weapon-systems and delivery vectors from various sources of help they've been able to secure over the years on top of their own efforts, and I have not been used to see you doubt their ability to perform as an air-force so easily. Has it changed in recent times, and do you now belong to the category of nay-sayers disqualifying the Iranian war machine in every of its dimensions as well no matter the facts on the ground and even declassified reports from US and other western intelligence agencies pointing to the contrary ?

@December 7, 2014 at 6:06 PM : lack of retaliative action from Syrian air defenses and air-defense squadrons doesn't emanate from a lack of technical ability, but rather an obvious unwillingness to open a new decisive front with a hugely superior foe on top of what they have to deal with today. I don't know if you have been told yet, but Syria is currently ravaged by a civil war stretching its forces thin and scattering them everywhere on its soil, hence their combat readiness and ability to respond to an additional attacker with full might and US support.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:06 PM, and can you yell us what kind of tough air-defenses the Israeli air-force has faced in Lebannon and Gaza in every of its air campaigns, or in war-diminished Syria that naturally doesn't dare escalating with yet another powerful foe in the region and whose ageing air-defense hardware are completely outmatched by Israeli jamming material without a direly needed upgrade that the current situation has forced Russia to refrain from ? how much of these "successes" can be credited to their supposedly superior abilities alone, considering the abysmal financial and technological gap existing between them and their current foes ? except maybe for Egypt, talking of strategic parity with the IDF amount to a joke in the region.

Anonymous said...

Wow, it is striking to see how many terribly biased commentators here being so quick at pointing out an alleged lack of merit on the part of the IRIAF based on the lack of credible anti-air defenses posing a threat to their planes, while constantly being the first to praise and hail the supposedly unquestionable proof of prowess of its Israeli counterpart in operations occurring in Gazan and Lebanese theaters, where for years the IDF has been faced with exactly ZERO resistance from the ground or the air while operating, including instances such as this one in Syria where they used stand-off weapons from undefended Lebanese skies and never actually entered Syrian airspace.

This and the fact that we regularly see Bibi wet his pants at the very idea of one of their foes getting their hands on Russian-made modern air-defenses and systematically crying at Uncle Sam's so that the latter can pull the necessary strings to prevent such transfers at political level. Laughable.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousDecember 8, 2014 at 9:43 AM
That general was ignoring or perhaps just ignorant of the fact that irans ballistic missile forces could destroy the gulf state airforces on the ground in one strike,the best case scenario for them would be the launching of one surprise attack before iran retaliated with a massive missile strike that would destroy their air bases and most of their aircraft along with it,it would be pretty hard for the pgc to launch airstrikes from bases whos runways are cratered and strewn with unexploded luster munitions, not to mention at that point any surviving aircraft would be sitting ducks for whatever weapon iran decided to send their way,in addition the fact that irans air defences are only getting stronger and the unveiling of irans oth radars allow it to see virtually everything flying over the entire me would not only make surprise attacks difficult but potentially very costly as well