DHAKA: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched attacks on Iraqi bases in two western towns that left at least 17 members of the security forces and 40 jihadists dead.

Security and medical sources said on Thursday, reports daily Hurriyet.

Seven policemen and four soldiers were killed when IS fighters attacked the police headquarters in the town of Heet, while at least six members of federal forces were killed in an assault on a major army base in Ramadi.

In Heet, a town on the Euphrates about 150 kilometres west of Baghdad, 25 gunmen attacked the police headquarters shortly after midnight.

‘They smashed the gates open with suicide car bombs, the 25 men tried to break into the HQ, sparking heavy clashes,’ police colonel Jabbar al-Nimrawi told media.

‘The police killed 20 of them and the remaining five withdrew to the electricity building. They are still under siege, they have sniper rifles,’ he said.

Nimrawi said the building was now surrounded by police, army, counter-terrorism elite troops and anti-jihadist Sunni tribal forces.

Doctor Nael Ahmed, from Heet hospital, said seven police officers and four soldiers were killed in the attack and the ensuing clashes.

In Ramadi, less than 100 kilometres west of Baghdad, further down the Euphrates river, a similar suicide unit attacked the 8th Brigade headquarters, just outside the city, on Wednesday.

BDST: 2044 HRS, OCT 02, 2014