'IS attack kills 15 Iraq border guards near Jordan'

"Daesh launched an attack with a suicide car bomb and gunmen on the 2nd border guard regiment near Trebil," an officer in the border guard told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The attack came from several directions and killed 15 border guards, including two officers," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The border with Jordan lies in Anbar, a vast western province where IS fighters have lost most of their urban strongholds but continue to harass government forces.

Border guards deployed near Jordan and Syria have been repeatedly attacked by the jihadists but today's attack was among the deadliest.

An official in Rutba, the nearest town, confirmed the attack and the death toll.

On the back foot in the northern city of Mosul, their last major stronghold in Iraq, IS jihadists have carried out a series of diversionary attacks elsewhere in the country.

Since the launch of a massive offensive against Mosul on October 17 last year, they have staged deadly attacks on Kirkuk, in the Sinjar area, in Rutba as well as continued car bombings in Baghdad.