1st LD: At least 17 killed in 7 car bombs, clashes in Iraq's Ramadi

At least 17 security members were killed and some 30 others wounded on Wednesday in coordinated attacks by the Islamic State (IS) militants targeting security forces in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

The attacks started in the morning when seven car bombs, some of them were suicide car bombings, detonated at checkpoints and military bases in the government-held areas in the city, which located some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attacks were followed by heavy clashes in al-Houz district which is adjacent to the government compound, and three others districts in the center of the partially IS-held city, the source said.

The toll could rise as the source cited initial medical report which said that the city's hospital has received 17 bodies of the security members and 30 others were admitted for treatment.

The IS group has seized around 80 percent of Iraq's largest province Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 10 last year, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS.

The IS has taken control of the country's northern province of Nineveh, and then seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit