Washington: US officials said there were indications that Syria had launched airstrikes into western Iraq Monday in an attempt to slow the ISIL insurgency fighting both the Syrian and Iraqi governments.
The White House said intervention by Syria was not the way to stem the insurgents, who have taken control of several cities in northern and western Iraq.
Bernadette Meehan, a National Security Council spokeswoman, said, “The solution to Iraq's security challenge does not involve militias or the murderous Assad regime, but the strengthening of the Iraqi security forces to combat threats.”
The reports came after the a group of fighters from al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate in a border town defected and joined the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The move opens the way for the ISIL, which formally broke with al-Qaeda earlier this year, to take control of both sides of the Syria-Iraq border and a huge chunk of territory straddling the two countries.
Another US official said Iran has been flying surveillance drones in Iraq.
The U.S. is also conducting aerial surveillance over Iraq and is dispatching about 300 military advisers to Baghdad and elsewhere to help train Iraqi security forces. Some reports said that the US advisers had landed in Baghdad.
