Iraq Crisis: PM Maliki Welcomes Syria Airstrikes on Isis Jihadists

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has welcomed Syrian airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) militants within Iraqi territory.

Al-Maliki confirmed the military action by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in an exclusive interview with BBC News. He added that Iraq had not requested the strikes against the militant group.

Isis are seeking to eradicate the border between Iraq and Syria in the hope of creating an Islamic caliphate based on sectarian divisions as opposed to the borders created by the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement.

The group have used an online English language publication, entitled the Islamic State Report, to convey their message to potential Western recruits.

"It was 98 years ago that the Allies of WWI forged a secret agreement to carve up the territories of the Muslim lands," the publication reads.

"They would form a symbolic precedent for subsequent partitioning of Muslim lands by crusader powers. Years after the agreement, invisible borders would go on to separate a Muslim and his brother, and pave the way for ruthless, nationalistic tawaghit [idolatry] to entrench the ummah's [Muslim world's] division rather than working to unite the Muslims under one imam carrying the banner of truth."

The Islamist group continues to threaten key Iraqi infrastructure having captured large swathes of northern Iraq, including the second city of Mosul, alongside its Sunni Muslim allies.

The insurgents are closing in on Iraq's Haditha Dam, home to the country's second-largest resevoir, raising fears that they will open its floodgates as they did after their capture of Fallujah dam earlier this year.

American and Iranian military aircraft both began surveillance missions to gather intelligence as the Isis insurgency brings traditional foes together against a common enemy.

In Baghdad, 300 American military advisers began their work at a joint operations centre to coordinate with the Iraqi military.