Iraqi army forces withdrew from a military base at the edge of the militants-seized town of Heet in the country's western province of Anbar, leaving the town and the base in the hands of Islamic State (IS) militants, a provincial security source said.
In a "tactical withdrawal" late Sunday night, government troops pulled out of the training base near Heet, some 160 km west of Iraq's capital Baghdad, and moved to the al-Asad base in Baghdadi area, 40 km northwest of Heet, the source told Xinhua.
The troops also evacuated all their weapons and equipment to al-Asad base, the source said.
On Oct 2, hundreds of IS militants stormed Heet and seized most of its neighbourhoods following fierce clashes with Iraqi security forces and allied Sunni tribesmen.
The security situation has deteriorated drastically in Iraq since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of IS militants, who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul.
Later, the militants seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.
