Two car bombings killed and injured at least 23 Iraqi personnel at the town of Baiji in northern Iraq Friday, a security source said, adding that Iraqi army forces defused two other booby-trapped cars.
The source told KUNA in a statement that at least six personnel, including General Faisal Malek, were killed and 11 others injured in the first car bombing.
Malek is one of the supervisors of the operation designed to break the Sunni insurgents' grip on the facility and rescue security forces trapped inside it just outside the town.
It added that a suicide bomber in a truck packed with explosives killed two policemen and injured four others.
These bombings come at a time when Iraqi security forces advances toward the town.
The source noted that both sides used heavy weapons, tanks and armored military vehicles, saying that Iraqi security forces managed to raise the flag over the headquarters of Salahudin governorate after it was controlled by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Security forces supported by a specialized unit defuse bobby-trapped cars left on a number of streets.