There are currently thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards stationed in a number of Iraqi cities to help Tehran regime its loss in Iraq after the ouster former Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The guards that are estimated to be over 7000 are stationed in Baghdad, Diyala and Salah ad-Din provinces and the cities of Samarra, Karbala, Najaf, Khaneqain, Sa adiyah and Jaloula.

Al-Zaman [The Times of Baghdad] reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has proposed to visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi an anti-ISIL axis including Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq that would be led by Iran, as an alternative to the US-led coalition proposed by President Barack Obama. In essence, this is the same kind of support Iran offers Bashar al-Assad in Syria against ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates there (as well as against the Free Syrian Army)

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran delivered a searing indictment of Western and Arab states on Thursday in his annual speech to the United Nations, blaming them for sowing the seeds of extremism in the Middle East with "strategic blunders" that have given rise to the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups. "Certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hands of madmen, who now spare no one," Mr. Rouhani said, adding that "all those who have played a role in founding and supporting these terror groups must acknowledge their errors" and apologize.

Iran s covert activities appear to be continuing unabated in countries such as Syria and Iraq. Despite Iran s public denials, for example, other information suggests Iran is increasingly involved, along with Lebanese Hizballah, in the Syria conflict. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) remains a key tool of Iran s foreign policy and power projection, in Syria and beyond. IRGC-QF has continued efforts to improve its access within foreign countries and its ability to conduct terrorist attacks.

What we now know is that Iran was the first country to send weapons and artillery to stop the extremists advance into Makhmur. But why Iran? And why weren t Iranian Kurds allowed initially to join the fight against the Islamist militants? Why is the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - which was hiding in the mountains until it joined the fight against the extremists - roaming freely around Iraqi Kurdistan now?

A powerful Iranian general has emerged as the chief tactician in Iraq's fight against Sunni militants, working on the front lines alongside 120 advisers from his country's Revolutionary Guard to direct Shiite militiamen and government forces in the smallest details of battle, militia commanders and government officials say.

Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday he is against US intervention in neighboring Iraq, where Islamic extremists and Sunni militants opposed to Tehran have seized a number of towns and cities, the official IRNA news agency reported. "We strongly oppose the intervention of the US and others in the domestic affairs of Iraq," Khamenei was quoted as saying, in his first reaction to the crisis.