At least 43 people were killed on Saturday in a suicide car bombing and heavy clashes between the Iraqi security forces and Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's western province of Anbar, provincial security sources said.
The security forces and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, clashed with the IS militants east of the IS-held town of Garma, just east of the city of Fallujah and some 50 km west of Iraq's capital Baghdad, leaving 17 IS militants dead and four houses used by the militants destroyed, one of the sources told Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, at least 12 soldiers and allied militiamen were killed and eight others wounded when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden Humvee into a military base near Garma, the source said.
On Thursday, the security forces and allied militias laid siege to Garma, while fierce clashes continued. The militants showed heavy resistance and planted dozens of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings and vehicles to check the advance of the troops.
Also in the province, the security forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters backed by the US-led coalition took control of al-Theilah district in the eastern part of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, after hours of heavy clashes with the IS militants, a security source from the city told Xinhua.
The clashes in the city left at least 10 militants dead and two of their vehicles destroyed, while four security members were killed and 13 wounded, the source said.
The battles in Ramadi are part of ongoing clashes between the Iraqi forces and the IS militants who gained more ground last month in the northern, eastern and central parts of the city, forcing the Iraqi government to send reinforcement troops to the city to regain ground in some of the city districts.
