Iraq has started bombing Islamic State with help from a new intelligence center that has staff from Russia, Iran and Syria, a senior parliamentary figure said on Tuesday about cooperation seen as a threat to U.S. interests in the region.
The center has been operational for about a week, and it provided intelligence for air strikes on a gathering of middle-level Islamic State figures, Hakim al Zamili, the head of parliament's defense 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 neighboring Syria, including Islamic State, to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, to the consternation of the West.
Iraqi officials, frustrated with the pace and depth of the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State, 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 center in Baghdad, according to an Iraqi official who asked not to be named.
Zamili, a leading Shi'ite 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 U.S. occupation.
"We find it extremely useful," said an Iraqi official who asked not to be named.
"The idea is to formalize 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 Sunni insurgents on Iraqi soil.
Iraq's government, and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias who are leading the fight against Islamic State, say the United States lacks the resolve to eliminate militancy, an allegation it denies.
U.S.-led air strikes on Islamic State 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 Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, based on information from the center, 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 Nuri 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.
REUTERS