At least 11 security personnel were killed and some 25 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in Iraq's central Babil province, a provincial security source said Monday.
In the early hours of Monday, a suicide bomber blew up a Humvee packed with explosives at a checkpoint manned by security forces and Shia militia in al-Farsiyah area north of the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, some 60 km south of Baghdad, a security source from Babil province told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The Humvee was probably seized earlier from defeated government troops June 10 after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their bases in the face of the blitzkrieg of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group across Iraq in which the radical group and other Sunni militant groups seized large swathes of territories in predominantly Sunni provinces.
The attack came two days after the security forces backed by some 6,000 Shia militia and Iraqi aircraft freed the town of Jurf al-Sakhar and seven nearby areas, including al-Farsiyah, which stretch to the northwest desert leading to the battle-field town of Ameriyat al-Fallujah, some 40 km west of Baghdad.
Observers see the advance toward Ameriyat al-Fallujah as a significant success for the Iraqi forces in their efforts to push back IS militants.
Ameriyat al-Fallujah, located some 60 km north of the Shia holy city of Karbala, is the last major town ahead of Baghdad that is under government control.
If the militants seize Ameriyat al-Fallujah they will be closer to the Iraqi capital and will also be able to move closer to Karbala, 108 km south of Baghdad, and pound them with artillery and mortars.