29 killed in suicide attack, air strikes in Iraq's Anbar

A total of 29 people were killed and some 20 others wounded on Friday in a suicide bomb attack targeting Iraqi security forces and air strikes on positions of Islamic State (IS) militants in the country's western province of Anbar, a provincial security source said.

In one attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden military vehicle near Iraqi security forces and allied paramilitary fighters, known as Hashd Shaabi, in Sab'a Kilo area, just west of the IS-held provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, leaving nine security and Hashd Shaabi members killed and six others wounded, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Separately, 12 IS militants were killed when U.S.-led coalition aircraft carried out an air strike on two factories of booby trapped vehicles and roadside bombs in the industrial district in the south of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said.

Also in the province, the international air craft bombarded a group of IS militants at a house in Albu Ali al-Jasim in north of Ramadi, killing five militants and three civilians and wounding 14 others, the source added.

The attacks in Anbar province came as Iraqi security forces and allied militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Iraq's largest province from the extremist IS militants, which seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. Endit