Iraqi forces were engaged in an operation targeting IS suspects in a rural area of the central province of Diyala, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Baghdad.

The government's security media cell said in a statement: "Our security forces surrounded a group of terrorists... and killed and injured a number of them during clashes."

It added that several members of the security forces were also killed, without elaborating.

A local police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one soldier and three policemen were killed "in the ongoing clashes" in Diyala's Khan Bani Saad district.

He said three IS fighters were killed.

Iraqi forces continue to comb the area -- where on Friday two IS fighters were killed in a military operation -- for suspected jihadists, officials said.

The jihadist group overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, proclaiming in 2014 its "caliphate".

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by local forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

But IS remnants continue to carry out deadly attacks and ambushes, particularly from remote areas and desert hideouts.

In a report published in January, the United Nations said IS has "between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters" across Iraq and Syria.