Iran officially denies it, but pictures tell a different tale. Aired by Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television channel, they show ageing Iranian Phantom fighter-jets bombing in support of an Iraqi attack on Islamic State (is) positions in Iraq. It is no secret that Iran backs both the Shia-dominated government of Iraq and the Assad regime in Syria. Yet the insertion of its aircraft into a theatre that spans both countries underlines the increasingly tangled and messy nature of the conflict, where skies are already crowded with American, Allied and Syrianjets.
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