Iraqi MP: North African countries export terrorism to Iraq

Iraqi lawmaker Alia Nassif yesterday demanded the Iraqi Foreign Ministry and other stakeholders in Iraq to sign security cooperation agreements with the North African countries, saying those countries “have turned into fertile ground for exporting terrorism to Iraq”.

The Anadolu news agency reported a statement by the MP saying: “Al-Qaeda is using a new strategy revealed by the Moroccan Interior Minister, Mohammed Hasad who announced that there are 900 Moroccan fighters fighting with the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and the same applies to Tunisia which has announced that there are 2,000 Tunisian fighters fighting in Syria, and these numbers are not insignificant.”

Nassif, an MP of the State of Law Coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, said: “This serious information means that the North African countries have become a fertile ground for exporting terrorism to Iraq. Therefore, Iraq must enter into security and intelligence cooperation agreements with these countries to stop this wave under the pretext of alleged jihad.”

She called on the Interior Ministry to “sign security cooperation agreements with the North African countries which includes exchanging information on Al-Qaeda and ISIS’ most prominent leaders to facilitate pursuing them.” She also hoped that the new parliament and government would consider the issue a priority.

Groups led by ISIS took control of large areas in the provinces in the north and west of Iraq over the past two months.

The Iraqi forces, backed by armed militias and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, were able to regain control of a number of cities and towns after fierce battles over the past few weeks.