Six security members were killed and six others wounded in a gunmen attack on a joint police and Iraqi army checkpoint at a town in Iraq's western province of Anbar on Saturday, a provincial police source said.

The attack took place at about 6:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) when unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles and hand grenades in two vehicles attacked the checkpoint near a cement factory outside the town of Kubiesa, some 180 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack resulted in the killing of four soldiers and two policemen and the wounding of three soldiers and three policemen, the source said.

The Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area and launched investigation into the incident, the source added.

Insurgent attacks continue in the once volatile Sunni Arab area in west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq's western borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The province and its vast desert area has been relatively calm for more than three years after Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. insurgent groups turned to cooperate with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces against al-Qaida network in Iraq.