15 Iraqi soldiers were killed Tuesday in fighting with Islamic State jihadists near the western town of al-Baghdadi, security officials said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that aircraft from the US-led coalition against the Islamic State backed security forces in the battle.
Local news service Al-Mada Press quoted officials as saying that reinforcements had been sent to the area, some 170 kilometres west of the capital Baghdad in al-Anbar province, with the aim of surrounding the militants in the desert.
Sheikh Na'im al-Kaoud of the al-Bu Nimr tribe, which has reportedly lost hundreds of members to mass executions by the militants, told Al-Mada Press that Islamic State forces had launched a two-pronged assault on al-Baghdadi.
Despite opposition from some local tribes, the Islamic State has captured much of Sunni-dominated al-Anbar, which stretches from the outskirts of Baghdad to the Syrian border.
The US military noted that parts of Anbar were being contested, but stressed Tuesday that Islamic State's momentum has been halted.
"We very much see ISIL largely in a defensive posture inside Iraq, that whatever momentum they had been enjoying has been halted, has been blunted," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
He did not provide specific numbers for how many Islamic State militants had been killed by US-led airstrikes because the US was not able to "to count every nose that we shwack."
The US has stepped up the delivery of military equipment to Iraqi security forces with the donation of 250 mine-resistant, armour-protected (MRAP) vehicles, the State Department said.
Last year, the US provided 300 million dollars worth of equipment to the Iraqi government.
