2015 . 01 . 15 14 : 53 
 [ 중동 ] Iran Eclipses US as Iraq ' s Ally in Fight Against Militants 
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 Iran Eclipses US as Iraq ' s Ally in Fight Against Militants 
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JAN . 12 , 2015 , 2 : 24 A . M . E . S . T . 
 BAGHDAD — In the eyes of most Iraqis , their country ' s best ally in the war against the Islamic State group is not the United States and the coalition air campaign against the militants . It ' s Iran , which is credited with stopping the extremists ' march on Baghdad . 
 Shiite , non - Arab Iran has effectively taken charge of Iraq ' s defense against the Sunni radical group , meeting the Iraqi government ' s need for immediate help on the ground . 
 Two to three Iranian military aircraft a day land at Baghdad airport , bringing in weapons and ammunition . Iran ' s most potent military force and best known general — the Revolutionary Guard ' s elite Quds Force and its commander Gen . Ghasem Soleimani — are organizing Iraqi forces and have become the de facto leaders of Iraqi Shiite militias that are the backbone of the fight . Iran carried out airstrikes to help push militants from an Iraqi province on its border . 
 The result is that Tehran ' s influence in Iraq , already high since U . S . forces left at the end of 2011 , has grown to an unprecedented level . 
 Airstrikes by the U . S . - led coalition have helped push back the militants in parts of the north , including breaking a siege of a Shiite town . But many Iraqis believe the Americans mainly want to help the Kurds . Airstrikes helped Kurdish forces stop extremists threatening the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone , Irbil , in August . But even that feat is accorded by many Iraqis to a timely airlift of Iranian arms to the Kurds . 
 The meltdown of Iraq ' s military in the face of the extremists ' summer blitz across much of northern and western Iraq gave Iran the opportunity to step in . A flood of Shiite volunteers joined the fight to fill the void , bolstering the ranks of Shiite militias already allied with Iran . 
 Those militias have now been more or less integrated into Iraq ' s official security apparatus , an Iraqi government official said , calling this the Islamic State group ' s " biggest gift " to Tehran . 
 " Iran ' s hold on Iraq grows tighter and faster every day , " he said , speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the sensitive subject . 
 Over the past year , Iran sold Iraq nearly $ 10 billion worth of weapons and hardware , mostly weapons for urban warfare like assault rifles , heavy machine - guns and rocket launchers , he said . The daily stream of Iranian cargo planes bringing weapons to Baghdad was confirmed at a news conference by a former Shiite militia leader , Jamal Jaafar . Better known by his alias Abu Mahdi al - Mohandis , Jaafar is second in command of the recently created state agency in charge of volunteer fighters . 
 Some Sunnis are clearly worried . Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al - Karbuly said the United States must increase its support of Iraq against the extremists in order to reduce Iran ' s influence . 
 " Iran now dominates Iraq , " he said . 
 Equally key to Iran ' s growing influence has been a persistent suspicion of Washington ' s intentions , particularly among Shiite militiamen . 
 Hadi al - Amiri , a prominent Shiite politician close to Iran and leader of the powerful Badr militia , complained in a recent television interview that Iraq was a victim of decades of " wrong " U . S . policies in the Middle East . He charged that the precursors of the region ' s Sunni extremists had in the past enjoyed U . S . patronage . 
 " We fear that the objective of the U . S . - led coalition is to contain Daesh , rather than exterminate it , " he said , using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group . 
 Speaking this week at a memorial service in Iran for a Revolutionary Guard officer gunned down by an Islamic State sniper , al - Amiri mused that Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Haider al - Abadi ' s three - month - old administration would have been a " government - in - exile " if not for Iran ' s swift help to protect Baghdad , according to Iran ' s Fars news agency . 
 During a trip to Tehran last week , Iraq ' s Sunni defense minister , Khaled al - Obeidi , said Iran ' s help against the militants is a " strategic necessity " for Iraq . 
 U . S . Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones acknowledged to The Associated Press that Iran plays an important role in fighting the Islamic State group . He made clear there was no interaction between the U . S . and Iranian operations . 
 " Let ' s face it , Iran is an important neighbor to Iraq . There has to be cooperation between Iran and Iraq , " he said in a Dec . 4 interview . " The Iranians are talking to the Iraqi security forces and we ' re talking to Iraqi security forces . We ' re relying on them to do the de - confliction . " 
 U . S . Army Gen . Martin Dempsey , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said Iraqi leaders have kept the U . S . informed about Iranian activities against IS and that Washington is watching the relationship carefully . 
 He said if the two countries grow closer economically or politically , " as long as the Iraqi government remains committed to inclusivity of all the various groups inside the country , then I think Iranian influence will be positive . " 
 But Ali Khedery , a top U . S . official in Iraq from 2003 until 2009 , warned that Iranian influence will be " strategically catastrophic . " 
 " It further consolidates Iran ' s grip over the Levant and Iraq , " said Khedery , who resigned in protest over U . S . failure to thwart Iranian influence . 
 Iran ' s sphere of influence extends to neighboring Syria , where it has stood by President Bashar Assad ' s regime against the mostly Sunni opposition , and to Lebanon , where its main proxy , Hezbollah , is that nation ' s most powerful group . Also , the Shiite Houthi rebels ' takeover of parts of Yemen in recent months has raised concerns of Iranian influence there . 
 The signs of Iran ' s weight in Iraq are many . The prime minister , the Sunni parliament speaker and other top politicians have visited Tehran . Most senior Iraqi Sunni politicians have stopped publicly criticizing Iran and vilifying Shiite politicians for close ties to Tehran . 
 On billboards around Baghdad , death notices of Iraqi militiamen killed in battle are emblazoned with images of Iran ' s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , and his successor , Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Last month , an unprecedented number of Iranians — estimated at up to 4 million — crossed into Iraq to visit a revered Shiite shrine south of Baghdad for a major holy day . Visa charges for the Iranians have been waived . 
 The two countries keep their military cooperation relatively quiet in public . Iran occasionally publicizes the death in battle of one of its senior officers in Iraq or speaks of its " advisory " military role . Iraq ' s state media don ' t mention Iranian military involvement . Paradoxically , they do publicize airstrikes by the U . S . - led coalition or the arrival of American advisers . 
 Soleimani , the Iranian general , has spent much of the past seven months on Iraq ' s front lines , leading militias and coordinating tactics with government forces . 
 A fluent Arabic speaker , the 58 - year - old has reportedly been nicknamed the " living martyr " by Iran ' s Khamenei . 
 A senior Shiite Iraqi militiaman who recently met him said he was impressed by his mix of piety and courage . He said he saw the Iranian general at a forward position in Baghdad ' s western outskirts , discussing coordinates in Farsi with the gunner of an Iraqi army U . S . - made Abrams tank . The gunner was a member of the Revolutionary Guard , the militiaman said . 
 Associated Press writers Lolita C . Baldor and Ken Dilanian in Washington , and Vivian Salama and Sameer N . Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report . 
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