A suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State group killed two Iraqi generals on Thursday in the key battleground province of Anbar, as the jihadists made gains in neighbouring Syria. IS overran large areas of Iraq in 2014 and seized Anbar capital Ramadi earlier this year. It also controls major territory in Syria, where it has thrived amid a bloody civil war.
Military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said a suicide bomber in an explosives-rigged vehicle struck the Al-Jaraishi area north of Ramadi as Iraqi forces advanced. The attack killed the deputy head of the Anbar Operations Command, Abdulrahman Abu Raghif, and 10th Division commander Safin Abdulmajid, said Rasool.
IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement online, but gave a different account of how it unfolded, saying it was carried out by four suicide bombers and two supporting gunmen who targeted the main command headquarters north of Ramadi. It said all six of the jihadists were killed. The Iraqi Joint Operations Command confirmed the deaths of the two officers along with an unspecified number of other "heroic martyrs".