TRIPOLI, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Five members of Islamic State (IS) involved in bombings and suicide attacks were arrested, the Libyan Interior Ministry said Friday.

These militants were "planning to target some security facilities and government institutions after preparing car bombs and sending suicide bombers," the Libyan Interior Ministry's Special Deterrence Force said in a statement.

"They were equipped in the desert by IS leaders to carry out some terrorist operations in Tripoli and Misurata (a city in northwestern Libya)," the statement said.

The arrested militants confessed their roles in suicide bombings in different Libyan cities, the statement said.

In December 2015, forces allied with the UN-backed Libyan government defeated the IS affiliates and expelled them from their former stronghold in the city of Sirte, 450 km east of Tripoli.

The remaining IS fighters fled to the southern valleys and mountainous areas since.