Iraqi army kills suicide bomber amid surge in anti-IS raids

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest has been killed by Iraqi security services during a targeted operation on Sunday morning. 

The operation took place in al-Tarimieh, 25 kilometres to the north of Baghdad, and is part of a sustained campaign against IS factions who still remain active in Iraq. 

Iraqi security forces have been involved in a weeks-long effort to drive pockets of IS resistance from north and western provinces of the country - especially in the Anbar desert, Hamrein mountain and around Mosul. 

The campaign is part of efforts to seal the border between Iraq, which Baghdad has said is the primary source of ‘terrorist infiltration’ into Iraq. 

“Units from the Iraqi army’s 59th brigade joined with local police and security officials killed a terrorist wearing a suicide vest in al-Tarimieh, to the north of the Iraqi capital” read an official statement on Iraqi state media. 

The suspect was not able to detonate his explosive device before he was killed, according to the statement. 

“The target fell into an ambush that had been set for him since dawn,” the statement continued. 

The announcement was made just hours after Baghdad announced the arrest of 26 suspected IS fighters in Kirkuk and Anbar provinces. 

“Among those detained were seven fighters all belonging to the same sleeper cell - which has now been completely eliminated” read an army statement on Saturday. 

“IS in Iraq has become weak, and unable to respond to our assaults” said the Iraqi army’s chief of staff, General Abdel-amir Yarallah on Saturday, speaking to army rank and file in Salahuddin province on saturday. 

General Yarallah promised to continue fighting against IS until “every cell, every element has been eliminated from Iraq”. 

Iraqi security forces have long pledged to seek out IS fighters and remove them from the country - after the fall of the IS caliphate in 2019 left individual members scattered across Iraq.