28 killed in bomb attacks, clashes with IS in Iraq

At least 28 people were killed and over 29 wounded on Monday in bomb attacks and clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants across Iraq, security sources said.

In Anbar province, IS militants seized an abandoned industrial facility and a nearby railway station after heavy clashes with Iraqi forces near the IS-held town of Garma, just east of the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency.

The battles resulted in the death of 13 soldiers and allied Shia militiamen, while 10 IS militants were killed and 18 wounded, the source said, without giving further details.

On Thursday, security forces and allied militias surrounded Garma as fierce clashes with IS militants continued.

Also in Anbar, a mortar barrage by the Iraqi army hit two districts in the IS-controlled city of Fallujah, leaving three people dead and five injured, the source added.

IS militants have seized much of Iraq's largest province of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad, but several counter attacks by security forces and Shia militias have pushed them back.

In Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb went off near a displaced family of eight members at a village near the town of Rashad, some 35 km south of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk and 250 km north of Baghdad, killing two women and wounding six others, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

In Salahudin province, IS militants managed to capture much of a vast oil refinery north of the town of Baiji, though fierce battles were continuing with government troops and allied Shia and Sunni militias in the remaining parts of the refinery, another security source told Xinhua.

Months of bloody clashes at the refinery have heavily damaged oil installations and related buildings in an area spanning some 20 sq km, with fires raging and huge columns of smoke visible from far away.

Since March 2, around 30,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of allied Shia and Sunni militias have been involved in Iraq's biggest offensive against IS militants to recapture the northern part of Salahudin.