Islamic State (IS) has captured an Iraqi town about 8km (5 miles) from an air base housing hundreds of US troops, the Pentagon says.

   US officials downplayed the fall of al-Baghdadi, which is within striking distance of the Ain al-Asad air base.

Ain al-Asad was itself attacked by IS on Friday though the militants were repelled, officials say.

   Until its fall, al-Baghdadi was one of the few towns in the western Anbar province still held by the Iraqi army.

Rear Adm John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the development had to be put into perspective.

   It was the first time in the last a couple of months that the militant group had taken new ground, he said.

   Friday’s attack on the air base is prompting some in Washington to question again whether deploying US ground forces against IS can really be avoided – particularly when it comes to recapturing urban areas where air strikes might risk killing innocent civilians, says BBC in Washington.

   US troops stationed at Ain al-Asad are currently training Iraqi forces.

   Rear Adm Kirby said the base had been attacked by a team of suicide bombers.

   Eight militants were killed in the subsequent counter-attack, US and Iraqi officials reported, saying that the jihadists were pushed back by Iraqi troops backed by coalition fighter planes.

   The US marines at Ain al-Asad are part of a force President Obama sent to Iraq to train and advise Iraqi forces in their battle to regain territory lost to IS.

   Washington is spearheading an air campaign against the jihadist group, which seized large parts of Iraq and Syria last year.