"The Directorate of Military Intelligence, the intelligence and counterterrorism unit of the Directorate, with a proactive process, based on accurate intelligence, a terrorist detachment arrested in Samarra operating within the so-called Salahuddin province," the spokesman for the security information center Brigadier Yahya Rasool said in a statement.

"explosive devices ready for detonation were seized, and they were trying to use them to target unarmed civilians and our security forces."

besides, a military intelligence statement said that "the detachments of the Military Intelligence Directorate in the 20th Division arrested two terrorists after an ambush in Badush district north of Mosul.