Iraqi forces bust Islamic State logistics cell and arrest 14 suspects in Anbar

Iraq’s military announced on Wednesday that it had dismantled an Islamic State sleeper cell in the country’s west, arresting 14 suspects.

According to a statement by the Military Intelligence Directorate, the terrorist cell was located in the district of al-Qa’im in the western Anbar province.

The Directorate described the terror cell as “dangerous,” adding it “provided information and logistical support to ISIS in the desert.”

“With a qualitative operation and accurate intelligence information, the Military Intelligence Division of the 8th Division, in cooperation with the intelligence of the 30th Infantry Brigade, managed to penetrate and dismantle a terrorist cell,” the statement read.

“The 14 cell members were arrested in the al-Qaim – Al-Rummana district and its villages north of the Euphrates River in Anbar.”

The detained suspects will be charged according to the provisions of Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law.

Al-Qa’im is located to the west of Anbar, on the Syrian border, and has been the scene of the fiercest battles between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in recent years.

Iraqi forces, backed by the international anti-Islamic State coalition, carried out a military campaign last week to find sleeper cell hideouts of the extremist group in an inhospitable stretch of territory in the western Anbar province.

Although Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State in December 2017, the extremist group continues to launch regular attacks, including bombings, kidnappings, and ambushes against both Iraqi security forces, Kurdish forces, and civilians in areas liberated from its control as well as in major cities it never took over, such as Baghdad and Kirkuk.

Recent unrest in Iraq in the form of widespread protests have slowed anti-Islamic State operations in the past few months.

The terrorist group appears to have taken advantage of the situation and has carried out attacks with increasing regularity.

Indeed, on Monday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and another wounded when a car bomb parked on a side road exploded in the town of Al-Qa’im.

Source: Kurdistan 24