Baghdad: The Islamic State jihadist group has claimed a suicide attack on an Iraqi police base north of Baghdad that killed at least 37 people.
A Somali man detonated an explosives-rigged armoured vehicle inside the base, while a Tajik and a Syrian blew up a Humvee and a truck in the area, IS said in an online statement.
The Monday attack -- which officers said also wounded more than 30 people -- was against a federal police base between Samarra and Tharthar lake.
The area is being used in a military operation aimed at cutting off IS`s supply lines in Anbar, a province west of Baghdad where the jihadists overran the city of Ramadi last month.
IS fighters have over the past year seized a formidable arsenal of military vehicles, weapons and ammunition from retreating Iraqi forces as they swept through much of the country`s Sunni Arab heartland.
Iraqi security forces have in recent days successfully repelled several suicide attacks involving explosives-laden vehicles thanks to anti-tank systems, but not all forces have access to those weapons.
The attack on the police base came a day before members of the US-led coalition carrying out air raids against IS and providing training and weapons to Iraqi forces held talks in Paris on a string of major battlefield gains by the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.