Two soldiers and three would-be suicide bombers were killed and 18 other soldiers wounded in separate violent attacks in eastern and central Iraq on Thursday, police and an official said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, security forces thwarted coordinated predawn attacks by al-Qaida militants when the troops came under arms fire near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, prompting a fierce clash with the attackers, killing three of them and seized three of their explosive vests, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Afterwards, several checkpoints found five car bombs parked near their positions in and near Baquba, the source said, adding that the explosive experts defused the cars without casualties.

Head of Diyala's provincial council, Muthanna al-Timimi, told Xinhua that the security forces have foiled an al-Qaida coordinated attacks by suicide bombers and five car bombs in and near Baquba in order to destabilize the security situation in the province.

Separately, gunmen attacked a military base near the village of al-Zaidan in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of Baghdad, sparking fierce clash that killed two soldiers and wounded 18 others, a local police source told Xinhua.

There were no reports about the casualties among the attackers, the source said.

The attacks came as Iraqi security forces and their allied tribesmen are still battling anti-government Sunni tribes and gunmen allegedly linked to al-Qaida in Iraq's western province of Anbar.

Fierce clashes between anti-government tribal fighters and army forces positioned on the highway adjacent to the eastern and northern parts of the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua, adding that the two sides used mortars, rocket propelled grenades, machine guns and small arms.



Meanwhile, sporadic artillery and mortar shelling continued on Fallujah, which is still under full control of anti-government tribal fighters, the source said.

Anbar province has been the scene of fierce clashes that flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi in late December.

The Sunnis have been carrying out a year-long protest against the Shiite-led government, accusing it of marginalizing them and its Shiite-dominated security forces of indiscriminately arresting, torturing and killing their sons.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, which is the highest annual death toll for years.