An Iraqi official has confirmed that information from a new joint-intelligence gathering centre in Baghdad is being used to bomb the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.According to repoets by Aljazeera :
Iraqi MP Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the parliamentary and defence committee, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that Iraqi air force jets used the intelligence to target ameeting of mid-level ISIL commanders. Officials had initially claimed the attack targeted the leader of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but security officials later said he had not been present. The intelligence sharing alliance, which comprises Syria, Iran, and Russia, was announced last month. Iraqi sources said two Russian one-star generals were stationed at the centre.
Zamili, a leading Shia Muslim politician, said each of the four member countries has six members in the intelligence sharing and security cooperation cell, which holds meetings in Baghdad’s fortified “Green Zone” that once housed the headquarters of the US occupation. “We find it extremely useful,” the Iraqi official said. “The idea is to formalise the relationship with Iran, Russia and Syria. We wanted a full-blown military alliance.”
Tore Hamming, a researcher specialising in ISIL and other armed groups, said that intelligence sharing between Iraq, Syria, and Iran was not new, and questioned Russia’s impact in anti-ISIL operations. “It is simply impossible to imagine that Iran, Iraq and Syria haven’t been sharing information for long. It can be that increased cooperation can lead to more assassinations of [ISIL] top operatives, but this won’t necessarily have a huge impact in Iraq,” Hamming told Al Jazeera.
