BAGHDAD -- A wave of attacks across Iraq killed at least 15 civilians Wednesday as government forces pressed on with their offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from a major city west of Baghdad, officials said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, though they bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State, a Sunni militant group that has targeted Iraqi forces, civilians and especially Shiites.
In the Shiite-majority town of Khalis, about 50 miles north of the Iraqi capital, two explosives-laden cars were detonated. The first car was parked inside a bus station and that explosion killed three and wounded 10, a police officer said.
The second car bomb exploded at the town's outdoor grocery market, killing four civilians and wounding eight.
In and around Baghdad, five bombs went off in commercial areas, killing eight civilians and wounding 35, two police officers said. Three medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
The attacks came a day after Iraqi security forces reported progress in recapturing some areas in the western city of Ramadi, 80 miles west of Baghdad, from the Islamic State extremists who control territory in western and northern Iraq and in neighboring Syria. The Islamic State has declared a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi security forces' advance was slowed by snipers, roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said. Rasool said some of the families trapped in Ramadi had managed to flee the city and reach safe areas.
Soldiers also were fighting to control a district in southern Ramadi along the Euphrates River, officials said.
In May, the Iraqi government suffered a major blow when Islamic State militants took over Ramadi, the capital of sprawling western Anbar province and Iraq's Sunni heartland. It was the government's biggest defeat since the Islamic State swept through areas in the country's north and west, including Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in the summer of 2014.
On Tuesday, Iraqi counterterrorism forces pushed into the Dubbat and Aramil neighborhoods, less than 2 miles from the city center, said Gen. Ismail al-Mahallawi, the head of operations in Anbar province. The Iraqi air force and the U.S.-led international coalition were providing air support to troops on the ground and bombing Islamic State targets, he said.
Hours after the Iraqi government announced the gains, Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, said there were 250 to 350 Islamic State fighters in Ramadi, as well as several hundred outside the city on the northern and western perimeter.
"I think the fall of Ramadi is inevitable," Warren told Pentagon reporters, cautioning that it will take some time. "It's going to be a tough fight."
But with thousands of civilians still trapped in the city as the violence escalated, officials complained Wednesday that they were being kept in the dark about the details of the offensive.
Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said the council was getting information about the military operations from journalists rather than from the military.
"The security leadership justify it by saying to us that they do not want the information to reach ISIS," he said.
There was also criticism from the Shiite militias, who operate under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces, who said that their role in the assault in Ramadi was being overlooked.
Kareem al-Noori, a spokesman for the forces, said the gains in Ramadi had come after months of battles by Shiite militias against the Islamic State in areas around the city. He said those battles had severed the extremist group's supply lines.
"Today, Washington comes along to steal the victories," al-Noori said.
Since overrunning Ramadi, the Islamic State destroyed all the bridges around the city. The militants also demolished the Anbar operations command and fanned out into the city's residential areas to set up less conspicuous centers of command.
Information for this article was contributed by Sinan Salaheddin, Murtada Faraj of The Associated Press and by Falih Hassan, Kareem Fahim, Omar Al-Jawoshy and Sewell Chan of The New York Times.
A Section on 12/24/2015