Baghdad, Aug 19 (IANS): Iraqi security forces have arrested a fugitive Islamic State (IS) terrorist from southern Baghdad, the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) said on Monday.

Based on precise intelligence information, an Iraqi force managed to apprehend the terrorist after carefully monitoring his movements and luring him to a tight ambush in the vicinity of Latifiya, some 40 km south of Baghdad, Xinhua news agency reported quoting BOC's statement.

The captured terrorist has been handed over to the relevant authorities to complete the legal procedures against him, it added.

The Islamic State once controlled major areas of Iraq and Syria, declaring a so-called caliphate in 2014. Although the group has been largely defeated and lost its territorial control by 2017, it continues to pose a security threat through sleeper cells and insurgent activities, particularly in Iraq's rural and less controlled areas.

At its peak, the Islamic State - also known as Daesh - held about a third of Syria and 40 per cent of Iraq. By December 2017, it lost 95 per cent of its territory, including its two biggest properties, Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its nominal capital.