A suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army force in Salahudin province in central Iraq on Friday, killing at least 12 soldiers and wounding some 30 others, a provincial police source said.
The attack occurred near the town of Dijla in south of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car near the force, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The area near Dijla town, also named Mkesheifah, is a battlefield zone as the Iraqi security forces failed several days ago to cross the zone on their way to retake control Tikrit by the fierce clashes of the Sunni militant groups.
Iraq has been witnessing its worst security conditions that began more than two weeks ago when armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by an al-Qaida splinter group ISIL, launched a surprise offensive that led to the debacle of Iraqi security forces, and the fallen of a large part of the country's northern and western territories.