28 paramilitaries killed in car bombings in Iraq's Baiji

Car bomb attacks killed at least 28 government-backed militiamen and wounded 36 others in Iraq on Tuesday, a security source said.

The casualties were inflicted by four suicide car bomb attacks on the edge of the IS-held town of Baiji in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin.

The suicide attacks occurred on the edge of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, as the Iraqi security forces and allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, were advancing to recapture the IS-seized town, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The powerful blasts stopped the advance of the troops and allied militias, while heavy clashes continued, the source said.

The battles in Baiji came two days after the town's mayor, Mohammed Hammed, told Xinhua that the troops freed several villages outside the town and were preparing to launch an offensive to recapture it.

Since March 2, some 30,000 Iraqi troops and thousands of allied Shiite and Sunni militias have involved in Iraq's biggest offensive to recapture the northern part of Salahudin province, including Tikrit and other key towns and villages, from IS militants.

The security situation in Iraq has drastically deteriorated since last June, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and IS militants. Enditem