Iraqi forces battle IS near Fallujah, senior officers killed

Iraqi security forces on Saturday continued fighting with the Islamic State (IS) militants near the city of Fallujah in Iraq's western province of Anbar, a day after the militants killed senior army officers, including a Brigadier General, a provincial security source said on Saturday.

Late on Friday, the extremist militants carried out attacks, including suicide bombings, on the security bases near al-Tharthar lake in north of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, leaving Brigadier General Hassan Abbas Toufan, commander of the army's 1st Division, and three senior officers killed, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The IS militants also killed and captured unknown number of the troops and allied Shiite and Sunni militiamen, the source said.

On Saturday morning, reinforcement troops arrived at the scene and fierce battles erupted to push back the extremist militants, the source said, without giving further details.

The battles near Tharthar are part of ongoing clashes between the troops and the IS militants since Thursday, when the militants blew up three suicide car bombs on a military base in Tharthar area, some 50 km north of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, and followed by attack of dozens of IS militants.

The IS group has seized most of Iraq's largest province of 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 last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS militants. Endit