Baghdad, Sep 15 (IANS): At least 16 people were killed and 28 others injured on Tuesday in an airstrike and separate clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's Anbar province.

An Iraqi aircraft bombarded IS positions in Rutba city, some 370 km west of Baghdad, leaving 10 people killed and 16 others wounded, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency.

The bombardment destroyed four houses, said to be militant hideouts.

Separately, a commander of an army battalion and a soldier were killed and two soldiers wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol near Annaza outpost in the desert area on the border with Saudi Arabia.

Fierce clashes erupted in the morning between an army force backed by allied militias, known as Hashd Shaabi, and dozens of IS militants near the battleground town of Garma, leaving two soldiers dead and four others wounded.

Also in the province, two civilians were killed and four others wounded in a mortar barrage by the IS militants on Khaldiyah town.