Iraq has confirmed that Syrian forces have bombed some of the bases of ISIS militants and also stressed that such moves would be welcome.
Iraq is also understood to have decided that it would turn towards Russia for getting warplanes - an action that could ruffle American feathers.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki told the BBC that Syrian fighter jets bombed militant positions around the border town of Qaim on Thursday, giving the first official confirmation of the incident hours after it was first reported.
The Iraqi leader added that his government welcomed such strikes against the jihadist group, which is threatening to overrun Baghdad, after having swiftly swallowed a major chunk of northern Iraq - including the second largest city Mosul - over the last three or four weeks.
Maliki also told the news channel that as the US has been delaying the sale of F16 jets, Iraq is turning towards Russia in order to buy the warplanes. This comes even after a troop of American special forces arrived in Baghdad which Barack Obama sent to assist and help the falling armies of the al-Maliki Shia government, in their fight against the Sunni-led insurgents who remain resolute in building a caliphate state in the area.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that a unit of al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, has pledged its allegiance to ISIS in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal, located near the Iraqi border. This could raise a few eyebrows as the Nusra Front, until recently, had been fighting in Syria against ISIS, which it sees too brutal and extreme.
Obama said last Friday that he was ready to use airstrikes in what he called "targeted and precise military action" against the rising ISIS militants, adding that he was sending elite US special operations force of around 300 members to Baghdad, in order to help the Iraqi forces who have almost been crushed by the insurgents.
Washington has been subtly hinting that the ongoing crisis was partly due to Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Maliki's failure to quell the advancing insurgents, although the US has refused to be blatant on this subject.
