The prime minister of Iraq has confirmed to BBC News that Syria carried out air strikes on militants inside Iraqi territory this week. Nouri Maliki said Syrian fighter jets had bombed militant positions around the border town of Qaim on Tuesday. While Iraq did not ask for the raid, he added, it “welcomed” any such strike against the Islamist group Isis. Isis and its Sunni Muslim allies have seized large parts of Iraq this month including the second city, Mosul. The Iraqi government has struggled to hold back the militants’ advance from the north and west and has also been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Muslim majority has close links. The US, the government’s main backer, has stressed that the militants can only be defeated by Iraq’s own forces. Mr Maliki will seek to form a new government in an effort to maintain national unity when parliament assemble again next week in Baghdad.
