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Iraq confirms cooperation with Russia, Iran, Syria over security

Xinhua, September 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iraq said on Sunday that it's cooperating with Russia, Iran and Syria in security and intelligence to confront the increasing threat from the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

According to Iraqi Joint Operations Command, a new agreement between Iraq and the three countries aims at "assisting and participating in collecting information about Daesh (IS group) and its associates."

It said that the agreement came in response to "Russia's increasing concern about the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia who are committing criminal acts with Daesh."

Iraq is participating in the new security pact with representatives from its military intelligence, a statement sad.

During the past months, Iraq has formed several joint anti-terrorism committees with countries willing to cooperate, which included Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Germany and France. In the meantime it has joined an international coalition of some 60 states to counter the IS.

Such an agreement in Iraq could raise concerns in Washington over Moscow's increasing role in the Middle East, after a greater military involvement of Russia in Syria in recent weeks in addition to Russian pressure to include Damascus in the international efforts to counter the IS in the region. Endit