61 killed in clashes, airstrikes in Iraqi province

Fierce clashes and airstrikes against positions of Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's Anbar province on Wednesday killed 61 people and wounded 66 others, a provincial security source said.

The security forces and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) carried out attacks on IS positions in Hitawiyn area south of the IS-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Iraq's capital Baghdad, leaving 15 militants dead and seven others wounded, while 10 soldiers and allied militiamen were killed and 13 others wounded, the source told Xinhua news agency.

Five more IS militants were killed and three others wounded when an army helicopter gunship pounded a building at a village northeast of the militant-seized town of Garma, some 10 km east of Fallujah, the source said.

Meanwhile, the IS militants fired mortar rounds on al-Mazraa military base east of Fallujah, killing a soldier and wounding four others, the source added.

In addition, 10 policemen and tribal fighters were killed and eight others injured in heavy clashes with IS militants in Sheikh Masoud area, just east of the IS-held provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

US-led coalition warplanes carried out an airstrike on three houses used by IS militants as hideouts in Mohammadi area west of Ramadi, killing five IS militants and wounding nine others, the source said, adding that the bombing also killed two civilians and wounded eight others.

The international aircraft also bombarded a building house of IS militants in the militant-seized city of Rutba, some 370 km west of Baghdad, leaving nine IS militants dead and seven others, including four civilians, wounded, he said.

Also in the province, fierce clashes erupted in the morning between IS militants and security forces backed by Sunni tribal fighters in Khasfa area near the city of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, leaving four soldiers dead and seven others injured, the source said, without giving further details about the casualties among the extremist militants.

The IS group has seized most of Anbar province and tried to advance toward Baghdad during the past few months, but several counter-attacks by security forces and Shia militias have pushed them back.

The security situation in Iraq drastically deteriorated since June 10, 2014, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS militants.