Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
has said he supports an air strike on Islamist gunnies at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria.
In an interview to BBC, Maliki said the air strike was carried out on the Syrian side at Qaim crossing. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
military and rebel sources told BBC the strike took place inside Iraq.
He said that he welcomed a Syrian air strike on Sunni turban positions as it left both countries "winners".
The Iraqi prime minister also said that he hopes fighter jets bought from Russia and Belarus will turn the tide against rebels in the coming days.
"God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he said.
He said that the process of buying US jets had been "long-winded" and that the advance of the ISIS gunnies could have been avoided if air cover had been in place.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
(ISIS) and its Sunni Moslem allies have seized large parts of Iraq this month.
Iraq has been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Moslem leaders have close links.
Speaking to the BBC's Arabic service 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."
The air strikes come as Iran and the US are intensifying their presence in Iraq. A section of the 300 US military advisers have arrived in Storied Baghdad and surveillance drones are flying over northern Iraq. Iran is also reported to be flying drones in the country, controlling them from an airfield in Storied Baghdad.