Three suicide bombers attacked a border crossing between western Iraq and Jordan on Saturday, killing at least four Iraqi security personnel and wounding eight others, officials said.

The bombers detonated explosives-rigged vehicles, one of them a lorry, at three successive checkpoints at the Turaibil crossing, said Sabah Karhout, the head of the Anbar province council.

The deputy head of the crossing, Khaled Alwan, and army Colonel Jabr Khailan, both confirmed the attack took place, with the officer blaming it on the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Iraqi security forces control pockets of territory in Anbar, a vast desert province that stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approaches to Baghdad.

But much of the province is held by IS, which spearheaded an offensive last June that overran swathes of territory north and west of the Iraqi capital.

Some areas have been out of government control for longer than that. Anti-government fighters seized parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, to its east, in early 2014.