IS continues attacks, as Iraq sends more troops in Anbar province

The Islamic State (IS) militant group on Saturday continued attacks against the Iraqi security forces in the country's western province of Anbar, while reinforcement troops were dispatched to prevent the militants' progress in the province, provincial security sources said.

The IS group launched a series of attacks by suicide car bombs and dozens of militants on key positions in the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In one of Ramadi's attacks, three suicide bombers drove their booby-trapped armored vehicles into the entrances of the 8th brigade base in the western part of the city, but were repelled by the troops, the source said.

Another attack occurred during the day when the militants and a suicide car bomber attacked a power station in the city, which was guarded by policemen and government-backed Sunni militiamen, leaving 15 security member killed, and the extremist militants seized the facility after the troops' withdrawal, the source added.

Meanwhile, Major General Abdul Basitt al-Fahdawi, head of the provincial anti-terrorism office, was killed during Friday battles when the IS militants gained more ground in Ramadi, the source said.

Separately, a source from Anbar provincial command told Xinhua that three brigades have arrived so far to the battleground in Ramadi and have engaged in counter attacks against the IS militants to free the areas taken by the extremist militants the day before.

The Iraqi aircraft have provided air support for the security forces fighting in Ramadi, as well as the U.S.-led coalition warplanes which carried out several airstrikes against IS positions in and out of Ramadi, the source said.

Also on Saturday, Suhaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province, pledged in a statement to defeat the IS militants in Anbar province and asked the Iraqi government and international coalition to send urgent support to the troops and allied tribal fighters to fight the extremist militants.

"Rising the flags of Daash (IS group) over the government buildings in Ramadi doesn't mean the fall of the city," Rawi said, adding that the situation in Ramadi needs cooperation between the security forces and the Sunni tribal fighters to defeat the IS militants.

The IS militants launched a series of attacks in Ramadi since Thursday night and managed to seize the district Jamiyah and Albu Alwan in the city. On Friday, the militants expanded in the city and took control of the government compound in central Ramadi.

The group believed to have captured a number of the security members and government-backed tribal fighters and executed them after they seized the government compound, a local security source said on Friday.

Also in Anbar province, IS militants and suicide car bombers attacked an army base near the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, leaving at least 35 soldiers and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, killed and some 20 others wounded, another provincial security source told Xinhua.

In addition, at least 17 IS militants were killed in three airstrikes by international coalition targeting the IS positions near the town of al-Baghdadi, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, the source said.

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