US believes Iran launched air raids on ISIL in Iraq, Tehran denies

The United States has indications that Iran has carried out air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Iraq in recent days, U.S. officials said on Dec. 3, while a senior Iranian official denied that Iran had launched any such air strikes.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had indications that Iran had used F-4 Phantoms to launch the raids in the last several days.

An Iraqi security expert said the strikes took place 10 days ago near the Iranian border.

"It is true that Iranian planes hit some targets in Diyala. Of course the government denies it because they have no radars," Hisham al-Hashemi told Reuters.

Diyala is an ethnically mixed province, where the Iraqi army, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shi'ite militias, last month drove ISIL out of several towns and villages.

A British-based analyst said footage on Al Jazeera of an F-4 Phantom striking Islamic State in Diyala was the first visual evidence of direct Iranian air force involvement in the conflict.

"Iran and Turkey are the only regional operators of the F-4, and with the location of the incident not far from the Iranian border and Turkey's unwillingness to get involved in the conflict militarily, indicators point to this being an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force aircraft," said Gareth Jennings of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news briefing on Tuesday the United States was not coordinating its military activities with Iran and added that it was up to the Iraqis to manage Iraqi air space.

"It's the Iraqi air space and (Iraq's) to deconflict. We are not coordinating with nor are we deconflicting with Iranian military,...