Iran sends tanks into Iraq; Iraq has air forces from 4 countries.

To learn what going on in Iraq one has to get away from the news channels and popular domestic publications and look toward specialty media that is informed and knowledgeable in warfare. Real Clear Defense, a sister web site of Real Clear Politics, is a knowledge source but it's impossible to double check the facts as it is the sole source of facts. Three recent posts should tell readers how woefully they have been informed by the popular media about the ongoing violence in Iraq. The first post come from a mainstream source, Market Watch. If it has been reported on television I missed it but the U.S. is preparing to begin flying both drones and conventional aircraft over Syria.

The Pentagon is preparing to send surveillance aircraft, including drones, into Syrian airspace to gather intelligence on Islamist targets, laying the groundwork for a possible expansion of the limited U.S. military air campaign beyond Iraq, senior U.S. officials said.
The move amounts to an acknowledgment that U.S. intelligence-collection efforts must be expanded to provide a better picture of the threat posed by the group calling itself the Islamic State, which holds large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory.
The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees American operations in the region, has requested more surveillance aircraft, including drones, to gather more intelligence on potential Islamic State targets, and officials said they could start flying missions over eastern Syria shortly.
“The Pentagon is preparing to conduct reconnaissance flights over Syria,” a senior U.S. official said. “There is no decision yet to do strikes, but in order to help make that decision, you want to get as much situational awareness as possible.”

On assumes that when the intelligence is collected Obama will authorize air strikes in Syria. He could avoid a constitutional crisis by asking for new war powers from Congress as he boxed himself in last year by asserting that he needed congressional authority to bomb Assad's forces for allegedly using chemical weapons. The other two post come from Real Clear Defense and are written by Jassem Al Salami. Al Salami keeps a low public profile and his location is never stated but one must assume he has some first hand knowledge of his subject.
The upshot of the two post are first, Iran has sent tanks into Iraq to fight ISIS and second, there are presently four air forces flying in Iraq air space; belonging to the US, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

On Aug. 21, Kurdish social media activists published pictures that appear to depict elements of the Iranian 81st Armored Division entering southern Kurdistan via Khaneghein, north of Jalawla.
The 81st is a battle-hardened division that fought hard during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. And before that, it had fought Kurdish insurgents in Iran’s restive northern provinces. Today the 81st Division is fighting alongside the Kurds.
After the Iran-Iraq War, the division reorganized and re-armed. As other units gained Russian T-72 tanks, the 81st gathered up all the leftover, American-made M-60s, M-48s and M-47s. More recently, the 81st broke into three largely independent brigades—the 181st and 281st Armored Brigades plus a mechanized brigade.
The units the activists spotted in Kurdistan most likely are elements of the 181st, as it’s responsible for defending the Sar-e-Pole Zahab border town near Khaneghein. Previously, there had been a build-up of armored units on the Iranian side of the border.
Elements of same unit conducted a counterinsurgency drill in mid-May. M-60 and M-48 tanks provided fire support for infantry units in the Zulfagharwar game.
Iranian army aviation stations Cobra attack helicopters in the vicinity of the 81st Armored Division. Iranian AH-1J Cobras are old by world standards, with outdated electronics and limited missile compatibility. But their crews possess a wealth of experience battling Kurdish separatists. They know how to fight fleet-footed insurgent troops. Read more.

So U.S. ground troops could be teamed up with the Iranian army? And ISIS targets could be assigned to the air force best suited to the task?

On the morning of June 24, unidentified jet fighters bombed a market in the Islamist-held city of Al Qa’im in northwestern Iraq. The city, which recently fell to militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is near the Syrian border, so we’re assuming the bombers were Syrian—an eastward extension of Damascus’ brutal air war against rebel forces.
At approximately the same time as the market exploded, Iraqi social media users reported contrails over Baghdad heading from west to the east. The contrails didn't match the usual twin pattern of civilian airliners or military cargo aircraft, indicating fighters.
Four separate air arms are now active over Iraq, which is fighting a desperate battle against invading ISIS militants coming from Syria. Iraq, Syria and—possibly—Iran have bombed ISIS. And the U.S. Navy and Air Force are flying reconnaissance missions. Read more.

Since that post the U.S. has moved beyond reconnaissance and has hit ISIS forces.
Like it or not the U.S. will be aligned with Syria and Iran in the fight against ISIS. The only other course is to do nothing. I can hardly wait for Obama to talk of partnering with our allies.