LONDON — Iraq's government pledged on Tuesday that it would not invite Russian airstrikes against ISIS positions inside Iraqi territory, after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi previously said he would do so.

The aboutface displeased Russia, leading Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko to tweet, "US threatens to stop helping Iraq against ISIL if Baghdad asks Russia for help. The terrorists must be rejoicing".

But the ambassador's choice of photo to illustrate a laughing jihadi ended up distracting from his point rather than reinforcing it. Instead of using one of the numerous, easily available photos of ISIS fighters circulating online, the ambassador used a photo of Kal Penn, from the stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

The actor and former official at the White House Office of Public Engagement noticed the ambassador's gaff and got a good laugh out of it. However, far from backtracking on their choice of photo, the Russian Embassy in London came out to explain that they couldn't find a photo of an actual terrorist, but Penn's performance was illustrative of the idea.

Penn then replied in kind, thanking the ambassador in the personage of fictional Russian boxer Ivan Drago, actually played by Swedish actor and chemical engineer, Dolph Lundgren, but his performance was illustrative of the idea.

OK, no more Twitter for today.

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