Iraqi forces battle ISIS in Ramadi

Iraqi security forces have held off a jihadist assault on a government headquarters in troubled Anbar province, deploying reinforcements in the key battleground against the Islamic State group, officers said yesterday.

Pro-government troops, backed by tribesmen, managed to defend the complex in Ramadi, which lies 100 kilometres west of the capital and is one of the last major urban areas in Anbar under Baghdad's control.

The attack by ISIS fighters, as well as clashes in the northern province of Kirkuk, follow gains made elsewhere by government forces battling to recapture ground from the Sunni extremists.

"We were able to stop the militants from advancing in the government complex," said army Colonel Haytham al-Daraji who was involved in the defence of the area on Wednesday.

Four members of the security forces were killed and 21 wounded, according to the officer and a doctor.

Daraji said that more than 10 air strikes were carried out against the jihadists in Al-Hoz, an area from which security forces pulled back, allowing the jihadists to advance to within striking distance of the key government buildings.

He said reinforcements had been deployed in the city.

"If we lose Anbar, that means we will lose Iraq," the province's governor, Ahmed al-Dulaimi, told Al-Anbar television from Germany, where he is recovering after being wounded by a mortar round in September.

"I will very soon be with the tribes and the security forces in Anbar to fight" ISIS, Dulaimi said.

Iraqi security forces wilted under the initial June ISIS onslaught, but are now backed by US-led air strikes, international advisers, Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribes, and have begun to claw back some areas.

They retook Jurf al-Sakhr south of Baghdad and also made important gains in the Baiji, Jalawla and Saadiyah areas north of the capital.

But three key cities -- Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah -- are still in militant hands, as are a slew of villages and other areas.

Security forces have repeatedly assaulted Tikrit and each time failed, while the battle for Ramadi is still being fought some 11 months after it began.