“Daesh is present in the shared area between us, and this points to the possibility of conditions arising that would pave the way for joint actions against Daesh,” Aldar Khalil told Reuters, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Khalil is the co-president of the executive body of the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM), the ruling coalition in Rojava.
He confirmed that ISIS took advantage of the redeployment of forces from the frontlines with the extremist group in Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria to defend Afrin canton against a Turkish military operation.
“After Afrin, Daesh has revived and has started to expand in the region, and has benefited a lot from the vacuum,” Khalil said.
“This is a danger we are thinking about, and we are trying to find the appropriate means to take measures against the expansion of Daesh,” he explained.
Iraqi forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are coordinating on border security. The SDF is in control of roughly a third of Syria, including a long stretch of the border with Iraq.
"A secure international border protects Syrians and Iraqis from Daesh movement into and across the region as the terrorist organization and its leaders flee the battlefield," the coalition told Rudaw last December when the coordination between the coalition-backed SDF and the Iraqi forces was announced.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi this week floated the idea of a cross-border military operation to fight terrorism.
“Our project has developed from fighting terror in Iraq to fighting terror in the region,” Abadi said in a press conference.
He stressed, however, that Iraq would “not transgress” the limits of other countries.
Politicians in Baghdad and Damascus have repeatedly stressed the importance of coordination between their countries in the war on terror, saying that the security of their two countries is linked.
