General Rules Out Iranian Missiles in Iraq

A senior Iranian officer dismissed earlier media reports alleging that the country’s missile systems have been deployed to neighboring Iraq for the fight against the ISIL terrorists.

“I do not confirm the presence of Iran’s missile system in Iraq,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mostafa Izadi told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday, when asked about reports of Iranian-made missiles being used in Iraq.

Last week, BBC quoted an unnamed Iraqi security source in Anbar province as saying that “six Iranian-made Zelzal-2 rocket launchers had been transported to the frontline in Anbar” for the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group.

The top Iranian commander then explained that the regional nations are willing to use the Islamic Republic’s experiences, and that Tehran brands it “self-sufficiency.”

Iranian officials have made it clear that Iraq is capable of defending itself and there is no need to send any combat troops to the Arab country.

The ISIL militants made advances in northern and western Iraq in summer 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the popular forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.