Gunmen have killed up to 27 members of Iraq's security forces in attacks on checkpoints in the Iraqi city of Haditha Al Jazeera reported
Police sources in Haditha told Al Jazeera on Monday that the attacks had exclusively targeted police personnel across several checkpoints. The death toll included two police colonels.
Lieutenant Colonel Owaid Khalaf told the AFP news agency that dozens of attackers carried out the attacks, beginning late on Sunday.
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The gunmen appeared to be travelling in interior ministry vehicles and attacked several checkpoints before dawn, the source said.
The attacks in Haditha are the first major instance of violence in the town since a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bank, killing nine people, including three police officers, and wounding eight others on March 2011.
Haditha is in the mostly Sunni Arab province of Anbar. It was one of several towns along the Euphrates valley that became al-Qaeda strongholds after the 2003 US-led invasion that removed Saddam Hussein from power.
Tribal leaders and thousands of Sunni fighters eventually turned against al-Qaeda, forcing the group's fighters out of the town.
Tension has also risen between Anbar and the central government recently, following an arrest campaign against former members of Saddam's banned Baath party.
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