15 killed in mortar attacks, air strike in Iraq's Anbar

A total of 15 people were killed and 36 others were wounded on Thursday in mortar attacks and an air strike targeting a position of the Islamic State (IS) militants in the volatile province of Anbar, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

A military chopper pounded an IS position at a village near the town of Saqlawiyah, just north of the militant-held city of Fallujah, which itself located some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving five killed and 12 others wounded, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Separately, mortar barrage by IS militants hit the town of Ameriyat al-Fallujah, some 40 km west of Baghdad, killing three policemen and a civilian and wounding 12 people, the source said.

Four soldiers were killed and five others wounded when the IS militants fired mortar rounds on al-Mazraa military camp, in east of Fallujah, the source added.

In addition, another mortar barrage struck several districts in Fallujah left two people killed and seven others wounded, the source said.

The IS group has seized most of Anbar province and tried to advance toward Baghdad during the past few months, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shiite militias have pushed them back.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June last year, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS militants, who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces. Endit