ANBAR, Iraq 

Five Iraqi soldiers and Shia militia fighters were killed and seven others were injured in a friendly-fire incident after the U.S.-led international coalition air force fired on an army base southeast of Fallujah.

An Iraqi army colonel told Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity that the “international coalition’s air force shelled the command base of the Iraqi army’s first batch this afternoon.”

Five military vehicles were destroyed and a number of buildings in the base were damaged, the source added.

Ramadi city, the capital of Anbar province – Iraq’s biggest governorate – has been under the control of Daesh for the last two weeks.

The Iraqi army, backed by al-Hashid al-Shaabi Shia militia, started an operation to regain control of the city on May 26.

Iraq was plunged into a security vacuum in June 2014 when Daesh stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it called a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.