Soldiers killed 25 militants in an ambush southwest of Baghdad, the capital's security spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said.
Maan said the fighters were part of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, ISIL, and that they were planning to attack an army base that they had attempted to hit last week, AFP reported.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday, attacks north of the capital killed 12 people, security and medical officials said, including six members of the same family shot inside their home on the outskirts of the restive city of Mosul.
A car bomb set off by a suicide attacker at a checkpoint in the restive city of Tuz Khurmatu killed a policeman, while attacks also struck against Baiji and Tikrit in Salaheddin province.