A Kuwaiti official on Thursday warned against the rising danger posed to the Middle East region by the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), calling for stepped-up regional security cooperation for countering this organization.
Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah, in a statement, reiterated his country's warning against the threat posed by the organization on the regoin, saying member states in the Gulf Cooperation Council needed to conduct more security coordination in this regard.
"We had warned about the perilous nature of the situation in Iraq before," Al-Jarallah said.
Over the past few days, ISIL, which is made up of hundreds of Arab and foreign fighters, managed to overrun vast swaths of land in Iraq, forcing tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers to flee their posts and leave their military equipment behind.
The militant movement had recently published a map of its envisioned Islamic state, which also included Kuwait among other countries.
Al-Jarallah said the militant organization does not only target Kuwait, but also all other countries in the region.
Meanwhile the militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, on Thursday night attacked Iraqi border guards in Anbar province close to the Syrian border, leaving casualties on both sides, according to an Iraqi security source who requested anonymity.
Unrest in north and west of Iraq began on Tuesday after the ISIL along with other armed groups seized Mosul in Nineveh province as Iraqi troops withdrew from their posts without resistance, leaving behind them their weapons and gear.
The ISIL threatens to move south towards capital Baghdad. They have captured several cities and towns, including Tikrit, Samarra and Tuz Khormato in Salahuddin province. The group has held control in western Anbar province since January.
The ISIL was established shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was most recognizably known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, under the leadership of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri cut ties with the group in February 2014 amid a dispute with another militant group, Al-Nusra Front.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in violence in recent months, which the government blames on the ISIL.
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