A suicide attack using an armored vehicle packed with explosives against an Iraqi police base northwest of Baghdad killed at least 38 people on Monday, officers said. The attack occurred before noon when a suicide bomber drove a military Humvee packed with explosives into a military base at an abandoned huge plant, known as al-Muthanna, north of the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a source said, AFP reported.
The powerful blast destroyed an ammunition depot and some of the plant's buildings, which house dozens of Iraqi federal police and Shiite militias, known as Hashd Al-Shaabi, the source said on condition of anonymity. A doctor said the bodies of at least 37 people, mostly policemen, were brought to Samarra Hospital. He said at least 33 people were also wounded in the attack, which some police officers said was carried out with a tank.
"The attack was carried out with a tank and left more than 70 killed and wounded," a senior police officer for Salaheddin Province said. The latest violence in Anbar came six days after Iraqi security forces and allied militias commenced a military offensive aimed at driving IS out of Ramadi, which the militants took full control of on May 17 after the Iraqi security forces reportedly withdrew from their positions. The area is being used in a military operation aimed at cutting off IS militant group's supply lines in Anbar Province of western Iraq.
IS extremists have over the past year seized a formidable arsenal of military vehicles, weapons and ammunition from retreating Iraqi forces.
