UPDATED: Anbar police arrest 4 fugitive IS prisoners

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Police services in Anbar have arrested four detainees belonging to the Islamic State after they had fled a prison facility in the city of Ramadi, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Saad Maan said police forces, assisted by tribal troops, arrested two other fugitives, arrested two fugitives, one of whom is facing a death sentence.

The province’s police chief, Hadi Kassar, said earlier on Thursday that two inmates belonging to the extremist group were arrested after a joint operation with intelligence services.

Anbar’s western regions, most notably Annah, Rawa and Qaem, still host some Islamic State strongholds that sustain occasional bombardments by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition fighter jets. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again. It is believed that the Iraqi government will not aim at western Anbar beforw it is forces are done with retaking Mosul, Islamic State’s biggest bastion in Iraq where security forces have been battling the group since mid October.

Very recent airstrikes pounded the location of meetings believed to have been chaired by IS supreme commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose survival remains a matter of question.