The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council announced on Wednesday (February 7th) that a terror cell that had been preparing car bombs to target Iraq's southern provinces was dismantled.

The cell members have confessed to participating in several terror attacks, including an attack on an intelligence officer, the council said.

"The Nasiriya court for terrorism cases has confirmed the confessions of a seven-member terror cell that has carried out several terrorist operations," Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul Sattar Bayraqdar said.

"The cell [members] admitted to having run their criminal activity from Albu Kamal areas," he said, adding that they also confessed to preparing car bombs to attack southern provinces.

One of the cell members, who is the brother of the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) "southern wali", has confessed to "participating in an attack that led to the martyrdom of Lt. Col. Nimr Sultan al-Shablawi, an intelligence officer in the 5th Brigade, in 2012", he said.

That attack also wounded a number of officers in the area of Albu Aitha in Baghdad, Bayraqdar added.

"The defendants have ratified their confessions in accordance with the provisions of Article IV of the anti-terrorism law," he said.