Islamic State (IS) extremists have unleashed a wave of suicide attacks targeting the Iraqi army in western Anbar province, killing at least 17 troops.

A military operation has been launched to drive Islamic State out of the western Anbar province of Iraq, where the extremists captured the provincial capital Ramadi earlier this month.

Voting has begun as campaigners bid to make Ireland the first country to introduce gay marriage by popular vote, Paul O’Connell is set to say farewell to Thomond Park after tomorrow’s game, Six officers have been charged with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson has officiated at a surpise wedding. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

A triple suicide bombing has killed 26 members of Kurdish security forces north east of Baghdad while a roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.

Aid has begun to flow to a small northern Shiite town in Iraq, a day after security forces backed by Iran-allied Shiite militias and US airstrikes broke a two-month siege by Sunni militants.

Sunni militants have blitzed through the vast desert of western Iraq, capturing four towns and three border crossings and deepening the predicament of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad led by Nouri Maliki.

A new wave of bombings has caused carnage in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people.

A car bomb in Iraq's western Anbar province has killed at least seven civilians.

ALLIES of Iraq’s US-backed prime minister appeared yesterday to have made gains in the provincial elections, rewarding groups credited with reining in insurgents and militias, according to unofficial projections.

A US military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said today.

Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against joining tribal councils fighting al-Qaida or participating in any unity government in a new audio tape posted on the web today.

Three parked cars exploded within 30 minutes in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad today, killing at least 12 people, police said, the deadliest in a series of bombings and shooting attacks nationwide.

US troops launched a new offensive against insurgents south of Baghdad today, aiming to cut off another staging ground for attacks on the Iraqi capital, according to the military.

Sunni extremists seized control of a remote village north-east of Baghdad in a fierce battle with residents who pleaded for rescue by Iraqi army and police as they tried to defend their homes, the deputy provincial governor said today.

A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives in the crowded outdoor market of a Shiite farming town north of Baghdad today, levelling houses and stores and killing more than 100 people, officials said.

Suicide bombings have killed nearly 50 people and wounded dozens in two Iraqi villages, including a large truck bombing today that ripped through an outdoor market and buried victims in rubble, officials said.

Emboldened by a successful first vote against US President George Bush’s Iraq war policy, Senate Democrats said today they were wary of the administration’s anticipated €910.8m request for reconstruction there.

Five American troops have died from combat wounds in western Iraq and Baghdad, the military said today, pushing the US death toll since the war began close to 3,000.

Security forces are closing in on the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a senior official said today, showing a captured video of the terror chief teaching followers how to build a car bomb.

Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb north-west of Baghdad today and at least two dozen Iraqis died in violence across the country, as politicians put the final touches on a national unity government they hope will restore security to Iraq.

An armed group created with government backing to drive al-Qaida fighters out of a restive Iraqi province today claimed it had killed five top members of the terror group.

A STRING of explosions in Baghdad and north of the capital killed at least 14 Iraqis and wounded 52 yesterday.

A roadside bomb blast has killed two US Marines near the western Anbar province city of Fallujah, the military said today.

Insurgents armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades battled about 3,500 US and Iraqi troops today on the streets of Husaybah in the second day of an offensive to rout al-Qaida from its stronghold along the Syrian border.

US troops battled insurgents holed up in houses and driving explosives-laden vehicles in a second town near the Syrian border, killing 28 in an expansion of their two-day-old offensive chasing al Qaida fighters along the Euphrates River valley, the military said.

Sinan Salahedin, Baghdad

Gunmen freed the kidnapped governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province today after US troops ended a week-long offensive in the region, relatives and a government official said.

US FORCES hunting down followers of Iraq’s most wanted terrorist pushed into a lawless region north of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border yesterday.

Iraqi security forces will not be ready to protect the country against insurgents by the June 30 handover of power, the top US administrator said – an assessment aimed at defending the continued heavy presence of US troops even after an Iraqi government takes over.

A 2,500-strong US force, backed by tanks and artillery, massed on the outskirts of the Iraqi city of Najaf for a showdown with a radical cleric, raising fears of an assault on the holiest Shi'ite city.