Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the Syrian air force carried out this week air strikes targeting Takfiri militants, who have been waging insurgency against Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the Syrian air force carried out this week air strikes targeting Takfiri militants, who have been waging insurgency against Iraq.

In an interview with BBC, Maliki "welcomed" any such strike against militants, as he noted that Baghdad did not request the aerial raids which took place on Tuesday.

The strikes came after terrorists of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) took control of the Al-Qaim border town on the Iraqi side of the frontier, providing them a strategic route into conflict-hit Syria.

“Nouri Maliki said Syrian fighter jets had bombed militant positions around the border town of Qaim on Tuesday,” the British broadcaster reported.

“While Iraq did not ask for the raid, he added, it "welcomed" any such strike,” it added.

The Iraqi PM said Iraq was buying Russian warplanes, which would arrive in a few days, as the US kept delaying the sale of F16 jets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the crisis with Maliki by phone last Friday, the Kremlin reported on its website at the time.

Putin confirmed his "full support" for the government's efforts to rid Iraqi territory of "terrorists", it said, without giving details.