Suicide bombings, clashes kill 23 in Iraq’s Anbar

Two suicide bombings followed by clashes in Iraq’s Anbar province west of Baghdad killed 23 security personnel on Tuesday, officers and a doctor said. The suicide bombers attacked a mosque in the Al-Jubba area of Anbar where anti-jihadist fighters were resting, killing 10, after which clashes broke out that left a further 13 security personnel dead and 21 wounded. Al-Jubba is located near the Al-Asad Air Base where American military personnel are deployed, and the town of Baghdadi, an area that has seen heavy fighting between security forces and the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed by Sunni extremists in Iraq, including IS jihadists. Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi said on Tuesday that the Iraqi military has started rebuilding after its near total collapse last summer but that the effort is still in its initial phase.

We are still in the very early steps; some of these steps might be painful, but we must endure.

Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi

Middle East Iraq