BAGHDAD -- Militant fighters of the Islamic State launched one of their fiercest attacks in months Wednesday, setting off 21 car bombs in the city of Ramadi, even as they were losing ground to an Iraqi government offensive in Tikrit, security officials said.
Security forces fought Islamic State holdouts in two remaining neighborhoods on the west side of Tikrit, a hub of Iraq's Sunni heartland. The city has been the focus of a weeklong assault by Iraqi forces, the largest operation against the group since it swept into control of much of the country last year.
In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, the militants aimed to show they could still inflict pain even as Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias came close to a strategically and emotionally significant victory on Tikrit.
Hikmat Suleiman, the political adviser to the governor of Anbar, said that the Iraqi forces there kept casualties in the Ramadi car bombings to a minimum by attacking and thwarting the vehicles as they approached, blowing up most of them before they reached their intended targets.
Reporting was contributed by Falih Hassan and Ahmed Maher in Baghdad, and by employees of The New York Times in Anbar and Salahuddin provinces.