Iran has deployed advanced rockets and missiles to Iraq to help fight the so-called Islamic State in Tikrit, a significant escalation of firepower and another sign of Iran’s growing influence in Iraq, according to the New York Times.
United States intelligence agencies detected the deployments in the past few weeks as Iraq was marshaling a force of 30,000 troops — two-thirds of them Shiite militias largely trained and equipped by Iran, according to three American officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence reports on Iran.
Iran has not yet launched any of the weapons, but American officials fear the rockets and missiles could further inflame sectarian tensions and cause civilian casualties because they are not precision guided. Their deployment is another dilemma for the Obama administration as it trains and equips the Iraqi military and security services to help defeat the so-called Islamic State, but unlike Iran is unwilling to commit fighters and advisers who join Iraqi forces in the field.
One senior American military official who tracks classified intelligence reports said Iran had deployed Fajr-5 artillery rockets and Fateh-110 missiles and their launchers.
Another senior American military official who also monitors sensitive government reports on Iran said the deployed weapons were similar to the Fajr-5 rockets and Fateh-110 missiles but were slightly different and had different names. The official offered no other details. The C.I.A. declined to comment.
Either way, American officials agreed that the Iranian missiles introduced a new level of advanced weaponry to the battlefield in Iraq, even as some experts questioned their usefulness at this stage in the battle for Tikrit. But the Fajr-5 rockets are the same weapons that Hamas has fired against Israel in recent conflicts. Hezbollah and the Syrian Army have also been using Iranian rockets and missiles for some time, military specialists said.
The second senior American military official said the Iranian missiles are “not a big deal at this point,” but then quickly added, “My concern, as with artillery and other non-precise weapons, is collateral damage if they employ them.”
There has been growing international pressure to avoid civilian casualties and revenge attacks on people or property in an operation by a mostly Shiite force in a hub of the so-called Sunni triangle. Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 3, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, alluded to the deployment of the rockets and missiles when he said, “This is the most overt conduct of Iranian support, in the form of artillery and other things.”