TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh on Wednesday announced that the force is providing Iraq’s air force with advisory assistance at the request of the Arab country.
Hajizadeh offered congratulations over the Iraqi forces’ recent victories against Daesh and said after the emergence of Daesh in Iraq, military cooperation between Tehran and Baghdad entered a new phase.
"From the first days of Daesh's invasion of Iraq, the IRGC Aerospace Force has been siding with the Iraqi Air Force in its fight against terrorists through providing advisory assistance and technical and educational support,” he noted.
The close cooperation between the two sides has been continuing as "Takfiri terrorism is taking its last breaths in Iraq,” the commander added.
 On Wednesday, the fighter jets of the Iranian Army and the Guards Corps held a joint military exercise in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
The final stage of the joint aerial parade of the IRGC Aerospace Force and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) was held in Bandar Abbas as part of preparations for nationwide parades to mark the Sacred Defense week, due to be held this Friday.  
The military drills were staged with a number of senior IRGC and Army officials, including deputy commander of the IRIAF Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh, in attendance.
During the Sacred Defense Week, different units representing the Army, the IRGC, the Law Enforcement (police), and the Defense Ministry take part in the parades in Tehran and other provincial capitals.
The most recent achievements of the Iranian armed forces in the missile industry, equipment for the ground, naval and air defense forces are put on display in the parades.
In Iran, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war is known as the Sacred Defense, and the Sacred Defense Week is held on the anniversary of the beginning of the war.
It begins on Shahrivar 31 in the Iranian calendar (September 22 this year), which is the day Iraq invaded Iran and began the imposed war on the country in 1980.