Iraq confirms security cooperation with Russia, Iran, Syria

Baghdad: Iraqi authorities on Sunday confirmed cooperation with Russia, Iran and Syria over 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 IS and its associates", Xinhua news agency reported.

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 IS".

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, Iraq has also joined an international coalition of some 60 states to counter the IS.