Clashes, bombings kill 26 in western Iraq

At least 26 people were killed in clashes and bombardments in Iraq's Anbar province Friday, provincial police and a medical sources said.

Fierce clashes broke out between the security forces and Sunni militants, including those who were linked to the Islamic State(IS), an Al Qaeda splinter group, in and around the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of capital Baghdad, Xinhua reported citing sources.

Eleven policemen were killed and dozens wounded.

The militants blew up a police station, and seized another one. They also destroyed several police vehicles in the city, sources said.

In a seperate incident, Iraqi military helicopter gunships pounded militant posts in the city of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, killing eight suspected militants and destroying three of their vehicles, the sources said.

Meanwhile, seven people were killed and 11 others wounded in artillery and mortar shelling on several neighbourhoods in the militant-seized city of Fallujah.