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Iraqi forces clash with IS militants, car bomb hits Baghdad

Xinhua, March 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Monday continued clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants in the country's western provinces of Anbar, while a car bomb struck the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, security sources said.

In Anbar province, security forces, backed by allied Shiite and Sunni militias and covered with Iraqi and U.S.-led aircraft, carried out an offensive against the IS positions in northwest of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops seized a bridge in north of Fallujah after fierce clashes with the IS militants and later continued their advance to retake control of the areas of Albu Shihab and Albu Souda in west of Fallujah, the source said.

During the battles in northwest of Fallujah, a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle among the security forces. leaving four security members killed and four others wounded, the source added.

Six IS militants were killed and 14 others wounded by the clashes near Fallujah, he said.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition aircraft pounded a house in the IS-held town of Garma, just east of Fallujah, killing the deputy leader of the IS militants in the town Mohammed Kamil Uoda and three of his aides, the source said.

For months, Anbar province has been the scene of fierce clashes between the IS militants and the security forces, which has gained support from some of the local Sunni tribes who rejected the presence of the extremist IS group.

The IS group has seized parts 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.

In Baghdad, a booby-trapped car went off near a Shiite mosque in Habibiyah district in eastern the capital, leaving two people killed and 10 others wounded, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

Also in Baghdad, a huge fire broke out a warehouse for ammunition and Katyusha rockets belonging to a Shiite militia in al-Obeidi district in eastern the capital, causing several rockets to be launched randomly to different nearby neighborhoods with no reports of casualties yet, the source said.

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. Endit