Roundup: 7 IS suicide car bombers hit Iraqi forces in western Iraq

A total of seven suicide car bombers on Monday attacked the Iraqi security forces in the volatile western province of Anbar, while three more suicide bombers were killed separately in Salahudin province, security source said.

In Anbar province, four suicide bombers detonated their explosive-laden vehicles into the positions of Iraqi security forces and allied militias known as Hashd Shaabi, or popular mobilization, in Haqlaniyah area, just northeast of the town of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blasts were followed by heavy clashes between dozens of IS militants and the troops, leaving at least 15 security members killed and 18 others wounded, the source said without giving further details about the casualty among the extremist militants.

Monday's attack came a day after the IS militants carried out a wave of six suicide car bombings on the nearby dam of Haditha but was thwarted by the security forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters.

The IS militants repeatedly carried out attacks to seize the key dam near Haditha on the Euphrates river but were repelled by the troops and local Jughaifi Sunni tribesmen.

Meanwhile, fierce clashes erupted in the morning when Iraqi forces and allied militiamen advanced to free the Sunni town of Saqlawiyah and Sheiha area in north of the IS-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, from IS militants, but the clashes ended when three suicide bombers rammed their vehicle bombs into the troops' positions and blew them up, the source said without giving further details about casualties.

Also in the province, heavy bombardment by artillery, mortar and air strikes continued during the day on Saqlawiyah, Sheiha and Albu Shejil, leaving unknown casualties and forcing dozens of families to leave their homes, 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.

In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, the security forces and Hashd Shaabi militiamen launched an attack on IS positions in northern part of the battleground town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, destroying four IS positions and killing three suicide bombers, along with blowing up six booby-trapped vehicles, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

In addition, army helicopter gunship bombed a vehicle carrying heavy machine gun and killed four IS militants aboard in Albu Jwari area, just north of Baiji, the source said.

The battle in Baiji came about a week after the security forces and allied militias, covered by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, cleared most of the town after days of heavy clashes with the extremist militants.

Sporadic clashes also continue in the nearby Iraq's largest oil refinery as the security forces are fighting to drive IS militants out of the refinery, which the militants are seizing large parts of it.

Since March 2, security forces and thousands of allied Shiite and Sunni militias have been involved in Iraq's biggest offensive in order to recapture from IS militants the northern part of Salahudin province.

Separately, the Iraqi defense ministry said in a statement that one of its Sukhoi Su-25 jets mistakenly dropped a bomb on a residential area in Baghdad after carrying out an airstrike against IS militants in western Iraq.

"One of the bombs became stuck because of a technical problem, and during its return to the base it fell on houses in Ne'iriyah area which is part of Baghdad al-Jadida district," the ministry statement said.

It said that the pilot tried to drop the bomb six times but he failed to drop it "mechanically or manually," then he was forced to return to his base in Rashid air base in Baghdad due to fuel shortage, but the bomb came loose as the plane flew over the district to land at its base.

Earlier in the day a police officer told Xinhua that the bomb killed at least seven people and wounded eight, along with destroying six houses and caused damages to several nearby buildings and civilian cars.

Also in Baghdad, two soldiers were killed and four others injured in a bomb explosion at a house in Arab Jubour area in south of the capital, while the soldiers were conducting a search campaign at the scene, according to a police source.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of militants from the IS.

The militants 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.

Earlier, a UN report said 2014 had witnessed some of the worst violence in years, leaving at least 12,282 civilians killed and 23,126 others injured, making it the deadliest year since the flare-up of sectarian violence in 2006-2007. Endit