Iran 'backs US military contacts' to fight Islamic State

Iran's Supreme Leader has approved co-operation with the US as part of the fight against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, sources have told BBC Persian.

Ayatollah Khamenei has authorised his top commander to co-ordinate military operations with the US, Iraqi and Kurdish forces, sources in Tehran say.
Iran has traditionally opposed US involvement in Iraq, an Iranian ally.
However, Iran's foreign ministry officially denied it would co-operate with the US against IS.
Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told Iran's Press TV the report was not correct.
Tehran had been critical of the way Washington launched air strikes on IS only after US interests came under threat, she said.
A further indication that Iran may have approved co-operation with the US comes from CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who tweeted that Iraqi President Fuad Masum had told her as much on Thursday.
Shia Iran sees the extremist Sunni IS group, which views Shias as heretics, as a serious threat.
Last month US air strikes helped Iranian-backed Shia militia and Kurdish forces break a two-month siege by Islamic State of the Shia town of Amerli.
IS has taken over swathes of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria in recent months.
US forces began carrying out air strikes on IS positions in August after they took over several cities in northern Iraq.

Analysis: Kasra Naji, BBC Persian This new-found cooperation with US forces indicates a change in Iran's policy in Iraq, albeit one borne out of necessity.
In 2001, Iran cooperated with the US in Afghanistan by arming and supporting the Northern Alliance which eventually overthrew the Taliban government.
Now, there is a similar need to stop a threat, which Iran by itself can only defeat by bringing in thousands of troops.
Defeating Islamic State will remove the threat on Iran's western borders and help stabilise Iran's two main allies in the region, Iraq and Syria.
Iran can also avoid large numbers of boots on the ground, as long as Iraqi Shia militias, loyal to Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, stand ready to take up the banner and fight.
Iran's change of heart will no doubt be welcomed in Washington and London, where a joint strategy is taking shape towards creating a broad alliance of international and regional players to deal with the IS threat.
Sources say Ayatollah Khamenei has sanctioned Gen Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force - an elite overseas unit of the Revolutionary Guards - to work with forces fighting IS, including the US.