Facility used by IS militants for making bombs found in Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi authorities announced on Monday that pro-government fighters had found a facility that was used by Islamic State militants for making bombs in Anbar governorate.

“Acting upon accurate intelligence reports, a force from al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) seized an Islamic State laboratory that was used for manufacturing bombs in Al-Karabilah district, in western Anbar,” Almaalomah website quoted the Iraqi Security Media Center as saying in a statement.

“A huge amount of materials used for making explosives were found inside the lab,” added the statement.

Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq last November with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” in a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014. A government campaign, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition and paramilitary forces, was launched in 2016 to retake IS-held regions, managing to retake all havens, most notably the city of Mosul, the group’s previously proclaimed capital.

Despite the group’s crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country.