Islamic State urges jihad against Russians, Americans – audio

A senior Iraqi parliamentarian said on Tuesday that Russian officials were part of a new Iraq-based intelligence centre with staff from Iran and Syria.

Russia, a key ally of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, began its own bombing campaign on September 30.

The center, which includes six staff from each country, has been operational for approximately one week, Hakim al Zamili, a leading Shi’ite politician, told Reuters.

Iran, a longtime Middle East adversary of the United States, already boasts deep influence in Iraq.

It is Russia’s participation in the intelligence hub that is causing the most Western anxiety.

The audio message also confirmed the death of Abu Mutaz Qurashi, which the SITE monitoring service said was a reference to a senior Islamic State official killed in an airstrike in Iraq in August and referred to then as Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali.

Sources said at the time that the center would focus on the collection, processing, summarizing and analysis of current data about the situation in the Middle East in the context of the fight against Islamic State militants.

Iraq’s government claims that the United States lacks the resolve to eliminate Islamic State. Washington denies such accusations.

Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security & Defence Committee, revealed that his government is considering the possibility of seeking Russian contributions to strikes against Daesh sites in Iraq in a way that does not conflict with the operations of the US-led global coalition.

The first drone to be used by the Iraqi Air Force, loaded with ordnance, prepares to take-off to raid Islamic State group positions at an airbase in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, October 10, 2015.

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

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