Iranian Commander Calls ISIL "US Proxy"
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A ranking Iranian Army commander described the ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) terrorist group as a proxy that wreaks havoc on Iraq on behalf of the US.
“Today, the ISIL commits crimes in Iraq as a proxy for the US,” Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said in a meeting with two Pakistani military attaches in Tehran on Wednesday.
Pourdastan also described the ISIL militants as a threat to the whole region.
“We are now facing a common enemy, named the ISIL and the Takfiri groups, who are being supported by the global arrogance,” the Iranian commander noted.
Pourdastan, however, gave an assurance that Iran enjoys a “well-prepared, dynamic and operational” army that has increased its capabilities in all military spheres.
For his part, one of the Pakistani military attachés, Brigadier General Reza Ali Khan, said Islamabad has taken remarkable measures to counter the ISIL militancy.
The so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is a terrorist group believed to be supported by the West and some regional Arab countries.
The terrorist groups made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over summer 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer 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 and resulted in the freedom of many towns and villages.
