Triple suicide attacks hit Kurds in Iraq

A triple suicide attack tore through a Kurdish compound in eastern Iraq, killing at least 29 members of the security forces and wounding 88, according to hospital and security officials.

The triple car bombing happened in Qara Tappah, in the eastern Diyala province about 100 miles northeast of Baghdad. 

ISIL fighters targeted three different locations in close proximity to each other — two of them were used as bases by Kurdish security forces and a third by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party. The attack came as a major blow to Kurdish forces who, with the help of the U.S.-led air strikes, were able to capture back territory from ISIL in recent weeks.

Kurdish sources told Al Jazeera that the death toll was likely to rise.

In a separate incident, officials said a bomb killed the police chief of Iraq's Anbar province, where ISIL initiated its Iraqi offensive in January. The Iraqi army is under serious pressure in the west of the country, officials said, with the world's attention fixed on the Syrian town of Kobani instead as it battles a similar ISIL attack.

Councilman Faleh al-Issawi told The Associated Press that the device went off on Sunday morning near a convoy carrying Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Dulaimi in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. The convoy had been traveling through an area to the north of the provincial capital, Ramadi. The councilman said Iraqi security forces had recaptured the area from rebels a day earlier.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Iraqi authorities responded to the attack by imposing a curfew, but reinforcement was jeopardized because ISIL are in control of much of the province, according to local reports. The group captured the city of Fallujah, parts of Ramadi and rural areas.

The surge in violence in Anbar comes as fears are growing that ISIL could be close to taking over the entire province. U.S. defense officials said Iraqi government forces were in a difficult position in Anbar, where the few remaining government-controlled areas have come under repeated attack from ISIL.

"It's tenuous there. They are being resupplied and they're holding their own, but it's tough and challenging," a senior U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Agence-France Presse.

Dozens of U.S.-led air strikes in recent weeks on the western Anbar province have helped counter the group's fighters while the capital Baghdad remained secure, the official added.

But the situation illustrates that the Iraqi troops are far from an effective force and in urgent need of training, the official said.

The difficult circumstances in Anbar offered a stark contrast with battlefield reports from the country's north, where more capable Kurdish soldiers have made some headway.

"There's no comparison" between the ability of the Kurdish forces and the Iraqi government army, the official said. "The Kurds are moving, they're taking back towns and territory," and are able to coordinate with coalition forces.

Al Jazeera and wire services