Six Iraqi army personnel, including two high-ranking officers, and two Sunni tribal fighters were killed late Monday by a suicide bomber during clashes with the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq’s western Anbar province, according to local security sources.
"Four Daesh suicide bombers wearing explosive belts attacked a base of the army’s third battalion, which is responsible for security at a dam in the city of Haditha 160 kilometers west of Ramadi," Major-General Ali Ibrahim Daboun, chief of the Iraqi army’s Al-Jazeera operations, told Anadolu Agency.
"One of the attackers managed to enter the base and detonate his explosive belt, killing Brigadier-General Ali Aboud, Lieutenant-Colonel Farhan Ibrahim and four soldiers," Daboun said, adding that seven other army personnel had been injured in the attack.
Major-General Ismail al-Mahallawi, chief of army operations in Anbar province, told Anadolu Agency that Daesh had also attacked army positions with mortar fire and lights weapons "in the Al-Hamidiyah, Albu Farraj and Albu Diab areas north and northeast of Ramadi".
Al-Mahallawi added that Iraqi troops and their tribal allies had managed to repel the attack, killing 11 Daesh militants in the process.
By Suleyman al-Qubeisi and Ibrahim Saleh
