Iran vows to combat 'terrorism' in Iraq

Britain and America are weighing up military options in Iraq ranging from air strikes to the deployment of the SAS as jihadist fighters allied to remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime threatened to engulf Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

At the White House, President Barack Obama said he would "review options" over the weekend to counter the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an ultra-violent offshoot of al-Qaeda that has seized much of the north and west of Iraq - although he said there would be no "boots on the ground".
Meanwhile in London William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Britain was considering its options. While also ruling out direct intervention by British troops, he said Britain was "looking urgently at other ways to help, for example with counter-terrorism expertise" - which would almost certainly mean advisers from British Special Forces such as the SAS and intelligence agencies including MI6.

At a press conference in London alongside the US secretary of state, John Kerry, Mr Hague said Britain could advise the Iraqi security forces on how to counter ISIS advances. "Work is under way on that now and we will continue to liaise closely with our United States allies in particular on that," he said.
The Foreign Secretary gave no details, but in Libya in 2011, SAS units were sent to advise rebels despite David Cameron's promise then that there would be no "British boots on the ground".