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Iraq to share intelligence on ISIS with Russia, Iran and Syria

Associated Press
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FILE - In this photo released on April 25, 2015, by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, young boys known as the "lion cubs" hold rifles and Islamic State group flags as they exercise at a training camp in Tal Afar, near Mosul, northern Iraq. The Iraqi military has announced an agreement Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015 on "security and intelligence cooperation" with Russia, Iran and Syria to help combat the Islamic State group. (Militant website via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

Armed members of the Abbas combat squad, a Shiite militia group, march in a military parade in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias are training together to try to regain Iraqi cities under Islamic State control, officials said. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) (The Associated Press)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) (The Associated Press)

Iraqi will begin sharing "security and intelligence" information with Russia, Syria and Iran to help combat the advances of the Islamic State group, the Iraqi military announced Sunday.

A statement issued by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said the countries will "help and cooperate in collecting information about the terrorist Daesh group," using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Iraq has long had close ties with neighboring Iran and has coordinated with Tehran in fighting the advance of ISIS -- which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria in a self-declared caliphate. Iranian commanders have helped lead Iraqi Shiite militiamen in combat.

A U.S.-led coalition has been conducting aerial bombing campaigns against ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria, but U.S. officials insist they have no coordination with Tehran on the matter.

The agreement with Russia comes at a time when Moscow is ramping up its involvement in Syria in defense of its ally Bashar Assad, with Russian soldiers on the ground in Syria, according to activists. The Iraqi military statement said that Moscow is increasingly concerned about "the presence of thousands of terrorists from Russia who are carrying out criminal acts with Daesh."