Sniper fire wounded the deputy head of Anbar's provincial council as he visited military units west of the Iraqi capital Thursday, officials said.

Faleh al-Essawi was wounded south of Anbar capital Ramadi, which was overrun by the Daesh jihadist group in May, said fellow councillor Raja Barakat.

Army Colonel Walid al-Dulaimi said he was hit in the leg and was taken to a military hospital at the Habbaniyah base in Anbar.

Essawi is the latest in a long string of senior officials and officers to be wounded or killed in Anbar over the past year.

Two generals were killed in a suicide bombing in Anbar last month, while two heads of the Anbar Operations Command have been wounded this year.

The commanders of a division and a brigade were killed in Anbar in April, and the province's governor was wounded in 2014.

Source: AFP