ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi security forces on Tuesday dismantled a “complex” alleged Islamic State (ISIS) cell in the vast western Anbar province, state media reported, with the jihadists’ so-called “Governor of Anbar” arrested. 

Iraq has ramped up its anti-ISIS operations in recent weeks against the backdrop of an unstable security situation in neighboring Syria, after Damascus-affiliated forces seized control of ISIS detention facilities from Kurdish-led forces, prompting fears of prison breaks. 

“A complex terrorist cell in Anbar province was dismantled after intelligence efforts that lasted over a year,” Arshad al-Hakim, spokesperson for Iraq’s National Security Service (INSS), said in a presser, as cited by state media. 

Abu Ayman al-Rawi, who was the jihadists’ so-called “Governor of Anbar,” was “apprehended while wearing a suicide belt, just before he could carry out his plans” during the raid, according to the INSS.

“Investigations led to the arrest of other terrorists, including those responsible for transportation, logistical support, manufacturing explosive-laden drones, and managing the chemical weapons program within the terrorist organization,” Hakim noted. 

At least three ISIS members, including the group’s so-called “security chief of Anbar,” detonated themselves during the operation. 

Anbar is a vast Sunni-majority desert province stretching along the border with Syria. The risk of ISIS remnants exploiting the Iraq-Syria border area has long been noted, with authorities having endeavored to secure crossing points and manage cross-border traffic.

About 80 percent of a concrete wall stretching roughly 600 kilometers along the border has been completed as part of a multi-layered defense system that includes barbed wire, deep trenches, and thermal cameras.

ISIS swept through swathes of Iraqi land in 2014 in a brazen offensive, seizing the country’s second-largest city of Mosul and proclaiming it as its so-called “caliphate” in the process. 

The jihadists’ territorial “caliphate” was brought to an end in Iraq in 2017 after Iraqi and Kurdish forces, supported by a US-led international coalition, drove out the group.