Iraq: 43 killed, 14 injured in airstrikes, explosions

  At least 43 people, including 40 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants were killed across the country Friday, security forces said.

The U.S-led international coalition launched airstrikes on five alleged ISIL bases in eastern al-Baghdadi area in Anbar province that left 40 militants dead, Colonel Shaaban Barzan al-Ibeidi, Anbar's emergency police chief, said.

Also Friday, three civilians were killed and 14 others were wounded in three separate attacks in the Iraqi capital.

In the first incident, a civilian was killed and eight others were wounded in a mortar attack in al-Shu’ala area in northern Baghdad. The source of the mortar strikes could not be detected, a police source said.

Two civilians lost their lives and six others were wounded when two improvised explosive devices exploded in al-Kesra area in northern Baghdad, police added.

The death toll could not be independently verified.

Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014 when ISIL stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi capital has been repeatedly targeted since the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stormed Mosul in June 2014.