Alwaght- Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has expressed confidence that the country can defeat extremist ideology through “security and intelligence during the next stage.”
Speaking at a security conference in Baghdad the Iraqi Prime Minister also noted that one of the reasons that contributed to the emergence of ISIS Takfiri terrorist group in Iraq was due to corruption in the country, which he described as a “serious germ.”
Al-Abadi also warned of the “transmission of the infection” to security forces throughout the country, especially those possibly related to ISIS members.
“Corruption is a serious germ that led to a [terror] organization’s control of two-thirds of Iraq’s territory in 2014,” al-Abadi said.
Iraq ranks 161 out of 168 nations on Transparency International’s corruption index as mismanagement and graft are the most significant challenges currently facing Iraqis.
After his “final victory” announcement over the extremist group on Dec. 9, al-Abadi warned Iraqi’s not to underestimate ISIS’ capability to reemerge.
“We should not lose victory by negligence here or there, and we should not allow terrorism to achieve any breach,” he said.
“The enemy has a deviant way of thinking, and we must focus on intelligence and security efforts to challenge them,” the Iraqi Prime Minister added.
