Three Sukhoi ground attack jets shown landing in Iraq in a video released by the defence ministry are likely from Iran, a think tank said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Iraq has purchased more than a dozen Sukhoi jets from Russia in a bid to bolster its forces in their battle against a sweeping militant offensive that has overrun large areas of five provinces.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the defence ministry said a second group of five Sukhoi aircraft had arrived in the country, implicitly as part of the Russian deal.<\/p>\n
The online statement was accompanied by a video showing Su-25s landing in Iraq.<\/p>\n
But the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said its analysts believe the jets came from Iran.<\/p>\n
IISS said Iranian Su-25s are given “a narrow range of six-digit serial numbers” and that the two digits painted on the three planes shown in the video correspond to the final digits of Iranian serial numbers.<\/p>\n
IISS also posted side-by-side photos of one of the aircraft in the video and an Iranian Su-25, showing that the numbers and camouflage pattern are the same.<\/p>\n
“Attempts to conceal original operator markings are also apparent, with evidence of key positions being painted over,” IISS said.<\/p>\n
“This includes the location of Iranian roundels on the side of the air intakes along with a large proportion of the tail fin.”<\/p>\n
Additionally, the three aircraft carried wing-mounted fuel tanks, indicating that they were flown in, while the first group of aircraft delivered under the Russian deal arrived disassembled in a cargo plane.<\/p>\n
IISS also noted that most of Iran’s Su-25s are actually from the air force of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, with seven Iraqi planes having escaped east during the Gulf War in 1991.<\/p>\n
The two countries fought a 1980-88 war in which Iraq used its Su-25s against Iran, but the governments of the two Shi’ite-majority states have grown close since Saddam’s overthrow in 2003.<\/p>\n