16 killed in clashes with IS militants in Iraq's Anbar

A total of 16 people were killed and 28 others wounded on Tuesday in an airstrike and separate clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar, provincial security sources said.

An Iraqi aircraft bombarded IS positions in the IS-held city of Rutba, some 370 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, leaving 10 people killed and 16 others wounded, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The bombardment destroyed four houses, said to be hideouts of extremist IS militants, in the city which is located on the main road leading to both Trebil and Walid border crossing points with Jordan and Syria respectively, the source said citing intelligence reports.

Separately, a commander of an army battalion and a soldier were killed and two soldiers wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol near Annaza outpost in the desert area on the border with Saudi Arabia, another security source anonymously told Xinhua.

Fierce clashes erupted in the morning between an army force backed by allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, and dozens of IS militants near the battleground town of Garma, just east of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, about 50 km west of Baghdad, leaving two soldiers dead and four others wounded, the source said without giving further details about the casualties among the IS militants.

Also in the province, two civilians were killed and four others wounded in a mortar barrage by the IS militants on Khaldiyah, a town located some 80 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

Iraqi security forces and allied Hashd Shaabi paramilitary militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in the largest province from IS militants, which seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. Enditem