33 killed in bomb attacks, clashes in Iraq

At least 33 people were killed and over 47 others wounded Thursday in bomb attacks targeting the security forces and clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants, security source said.

In Anbar province, Iraqi security forces and allied Sunni tribes backed by US-led coalition aircraft clashed with the IS militants and seized al-Khasfa area in west of the town of Haditha, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua.

Six soldiers, nine tribesmen and dozens of IS militants were killed in the fierce clashes in the province, the souce said.

But official reports about their exact number of casualties were not immediately available.

Separately, five militants were killed and eight others wounded in artillery shelling by the Iraqi army on al-Shuhadaa neighbourhood in the militants-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

In Salahudin province, six Shiite militiamen were killed and 13 others wounded when a booby-trapped house at a village in the city of Samarra, about 120 km north of Baghdad, detonated after they entered it during a search operation, a provincial security source said.

Earlier in the day, a