Gunmen have killed up to 27 members of Iraq's security forces in attacks on checkpoints in the Iraqi city of Haditha.

Police sources in Haditha told Al Jazeera on Monday that the attacks had exclusively targeted police personnel across several checkpoints. The death toll included two police colonels.

Lieutenant Colonel Owaid Khalaf told the AFP news agency that dozens of attackers carried out the attacks, beginning late on Sunday.

The gunmen appeared to be travelling in interior ministry vehicles and attacked several checkpoints before dawn, the source said.

The attacks in Haditha are the first major instance of violence in the town since a bomber blew himself up inside a bank, killing nine people, including three police officers, and wounding eight others on March 2011.

Haditha is in the province of Anbar.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map of Iraq locating the city of Haditha

Al-Jazeera