ISIL Slaying Muslims as Proxy for US: Commander
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian commander described the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants as proxies that shed blood of Muslims in behalf of the US.
“Today, the Takfiri (extremist) and ISIL forces kill Muslims in the region as proxies for the US,” Lieutenant Commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base for Executive Affairs General Shahrokh Shahram said on Sunday.
He explained that such a proxy war resembles the one imposed on Iran in the 1980s, when more than 30 countries assisted the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a military offensive against the Islamic Republic.
In relevant comments on June 22, Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei had called the recent developments in Iraq an "attempt by the hegemonic powers to destabilize the country and threaten the country’s territorial integrity by using the remnants of Saddam regime as the main players and the bigoted Takfiri (extremist) elements as infantry."
The Leader’s remarks came amid escalating security in Iraq following lightning attacks by the ISIL terrorists.
ISIL militants have stormed largely unopposed across much of northern Iraq, capturing four cities, including Mosul and Tikrit, seizing several border crossings with Jordan and Syria and advancing to within some 100km of the capital Baghdad.
The terrorists’ attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in Nineveh Province to flee their homes.
