Iraqi security forces on Monday continued clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants in the country's western provinces of Anbar, while a car bomb struck the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, security sources said.
In Anbar province, security forces backed by allied Shia and Sunni militias and covered with Iraqi and US-led aircraft carried out an offensive against the IS positions northwest of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity.
The troops seized a bridge north of Fallujah after fierce clashes with the IS militants and later continued their advance to retake control of the areas of Albu Shihab and Albu Souda west of Fallujah, the source said.
During the battles northwest of Fallujah, a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden vehicle among the security forces, leaving four security personnel dead and four others wounded, the source added.
Six IS militants were killed and 14 others wounded by the clashes near Fallujah, he said.
Meanwhile, US-led coalition aircraft pounded a house in the IS-held town of Garma, just east of Fallujah, killing the deputy leader of the IS militants in the town, Mohammed Kamil Uoda, and three of his aides, the source said.
For months, Anbar province has been the scene of fierce clashes between the IS militants and the security forces, which has gained support from some of the local Sunni tribes who rejected the presence of the IS.
The IS has seized parts of Iraq's largest province Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shia militias have pushed them back.
In Baghdad, a booby-trapped car went off near a Shia mosque in Habibiyah district in eastern the capital, leaving two people dead and 10 others wounded, an interior ministry source told Xinhua.
Also in Baghdad, a huge fire broke out a warehouse for ammunition and Katyusha rockets belonging to a Shia militia in al-Obeidi district, causing several rockets to be launched randomly towards nearby neighbourhoods but there no reports of casualties yet, the source said.
The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since June 10 last year, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and the IS.
