Iraq using info from new intelligence centre to bomb Daesh — official

BAGHDAD — Iraq has started bombing Daesh with help from a new intelligence centre that has staff from Russia, Iran and Syria, a senior parliamentary figure said on Tuesday about cooperation seen as a threat to US interests in the region.

The centre has been operational for about a week, and it provided intelligence for air strikes on a gathering of middle-level Daesh figures, Hakim Al Zamili, the head of parliament's defence and security committee, told Reuters.

The new security apparatus based in Baghdad suggests the United States is losing clout in a strategic oil-producing region where it has been heavily invested for years.

Two weeks ago Russia started bombing anti-government rebels in neighbouring Syria, including Daesh, to support its ally, President Bashar Assad, to the consternation of the West.

Iraqi officials, frustrated with the pace and depth of the US military campaign against Daesh, have said they will lean heavily on Washington's former Cold War rival Russia in the battle against the insurgents.

Two Russian one-star generals are stationed at the intelligence centre in Baghdad, according to an Iraqi official who asked not to be named.

Zamili, a leading Shiite 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", which once housed the headquarters of the US occupation.

"We find it extremely useful," said an Iraqi official who asked not to be named.

"The idea is to formalise the relationship with Iran, Russia and Syria. We wanted a full-blown military alliance."

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has said he would welcome Russian air strikes against the ultra-hardline insurgents on Iraqi soil.

Iraq's government, and Iranian-backed Shiite militias who are leading the fight against Daesh, say the United States lacks the resolve to eliminate militancy, an allegation it denies.

US-led air strikes on Daesh militants, who control a third of Iraq, have failed to turn the tide in the conflict, which has sapped the OPEC oil producer’s finances and fuelled sectarian bloodletting.

Iraq’s air force bombed a convoy this week that was thought to be carrying Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, based on information from the centre, said Zamili. Security officials later said Baghdadi had not been in the convoy.

“We can get a lot of use from Russian intelligence, even if they don’t do air strikes,” Zamili said.

Sami Al Askari, a former member of Iraq’s parliament and one-time senior adviser to former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, said Iraq was aware of the sensitivities of the new arrangement.

“The Iraqi government wants to do this in a way that doesn’t look like they’re pushing the Americans away,” he said.