Iraq's Head of Counter-Terrorism Service on Coordination with Kurdistan Region

In Iraq, it is generally established that the Islamic State remains a low level but sustained insurgency in the country, punctured by occasional incidents in which multiple personnel of the security forces are killed and wounded. One of the factors relevant to the future of the insurgency is the level of coordination between the central government’s security forces and the security forces of the Kurdistan region. If tensions flare up between the central government and Kurdistan region and coordination is reduced, the concern is that the Islamic State exploits gaps in the border areas between the central government-controlled areas and the Kurdistan region-controlled areas.

Currently however, Abd al-Wahhab al-Sa’adi, who heads Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service, says that there is high coordination with the Kurdistan Region in combating the Islamic State. His recent remarks to Kurdistan 24 on the matter (as well as on provision of intelligence to arrest terrorists inside of the Kurdistan Region) are translated below (h/t: Wladimir Van Wilgenburg):