UPDATED: Death toll from today’s car bomb attack in Anbar rises to 10

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) – The death toll from today’s suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpoint at al-Qaem district in Anbar rose to 10, including six army troops and four members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a security source was quoted as saying.

The attack, in which a bobby-trapped vehicle was used, left 14 security personnel wounded, Iraqi website BasNews quoted the source as saying on Wednesday.

According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the security forces rushed to the blast site and sealed off all the roads leading to it.

“The security forces carried out a search for other explosive devices that could target civilians and security personnel,” he said, adding that today’s explosion is the first in the city of al-Qaem since the defeat of Islamic State there last year.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack, claiming that the explosion left 28 people killed.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi Security Media Center said a suicide bomber drove a booby-trapped vehicle into a joint security checkpoint manned by the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces at the southern entrance of al-Qaem, a former Islamic State stronghold on Anbar’s borders with Syria.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on November 3, 2017 liberation of the district of al-Qaem district in Anbar from Islamic State militants.