Top Iraqi military delegation arrives in Kurdistan Region

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A senior Iraqi military delegation arrived in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil on Sunday morning, according to the ministry of defense.  

The delegation is headed by the Iraqi military’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yarallah, who is accompanied by other top officials, including the deputy commander of the Joint Operations Command Lieutenant General Qais Al-Mohammadawi and Qassem al-Mohammadawi, the commander of the infantry forces, the ministry revealed.

The chief of staff of the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, Issa Ozeir, and other high-ranking Kurdish officials received the delegation at Erbil International Airport.

The officials are set to discuss the security and intelligence coordination between Erbil and Baghdad, “boosting joint operations” as well as devising strategies to fight the remontants of the terrorist groups across the country, the statement added.

The increasing attacks from the self-proclaimed ISIS fighters in the disputed territories are often blamed on the lack of security cooperation between the Iraqi and Kurdish forces that had held a number of joint operations and night raids in the past.

At least 15 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed in ISIS attacks in late 2022 in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Warning of increasing ISIS threats, Kurdistan Region officials regularly call on their Iraqi counterparts to increase security cooperation in the disputed territories, where the group has launched several low-level insurgencies against civilian and security targets.