Suicide car bomb kills 38 security members in Iraq's Anbar

A suicide car bomb detonated at a military base in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Monday, killing at least 38 members of the security force and wounding 25 others, a provincial source told Xinhua.

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 (IS)-held city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

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 Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization, the source said.

The latest violence in Anbar came six days after Iraqi security forces and allied militias commenced a military offensive aimed at driving out IS militants from Ramadi, which the extremist militants took full control on May 17 after the Iraqi security forces withdrew from their positions.

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