Clashes with IS in Iraq leave many dead

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-militants 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 so called Islamic State 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 militants.

IS spearheaded a major offensive in June that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, including significant parts of Anbar.  Tribal fighters have played a key role in keeping the jihadists from gaining further ground in Anbar, and Iraqi forces are now providing training to tribesmen at Al-Asad.

In a meeting on Monday with Suhaib al-Rawi, the newly elected governor of embattled Anbar province, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for a "tribal revolution" against IS, the premier's office said. He emphasised "the importance of the tribes and the sons of the province taking part in liberating their areas from the terrorist organisations".

A bloody year  

The ongoing violence in Iraq has killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014, making it one of the deadliest years since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Figures compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries put the death toll at 15,538, compared with 17,956 killed in 2007 during the height of Sunni-Shia sectarian killings. Last year's toll was also more than double the 6,522 people killed in 2013.

"Yet again, the Iraqi ordinary citizen continues to suffer from violence and terrorism. 2014 has seen the highest number of causalities since the violence in 2006-2007. This is a very sad state of affairs," UN Iraq envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

The UN put the number of civilians killed in Iraq during 2014 at 12,282.  Iraq Body Count, a Britain-based NGO that tracks violence in Iraq, gave an even higher toll, saying that 17,073 civilians were killed, which would make it the third deadliest year since 2003.

"For Iraqis, it has been the most difficult and painful of years because of the attack of the (Islamic State group) terrorist gangs," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a New Year's speech, referring to militants responsible for much of the bloodshed.

The year got off to a bloody start, with the government losing control of parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and all of Fallujah just a short drive from Baghdad to anti-government fighters. The violence was sparked by the demolition of the country's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp near Ramadi in late 2013.

It spread to Fallujah, and security forces later withdrew from areas of both cities, leaving them open for capture. That was a harbinger of events in June, when the Islamic State (IS) group spearheaded a major militant offensive that swept security forces aside.

The militants overran Iraq's second city Mosul and then drove south towards Baghdad, raising fears that the capital itself would be attacked. They were eventually stopped short of the capital, but seized swathes of five provinces north and west of the city.

A renewed IS push in the north in August drove Kurdish forces back towards the capital of their autonomous region, helping to spark a US-led campaign of air strikes against the militants. That effort has since been expanded to training for Iraqi forces aimed at preparing them as quickly as possible to join the fight against IS.

Iraqi soldiers and police, Kurdish forces, Shia militias and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in regaining some ground from the militants, but large parts of the country, including three major cities, remain outside Baghdad's control.  

Iraqis also suffer from daily bombings and shootings in Baghdad and elsewhere that claim hundreds of lives each month.