BAGHDAD // Nearly 100 people died on Friday in the bloody battle for control of the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribesmen killed 62 Al Qaeda militants in Ramadi, and 32 civilians also died in fighting that began when the Shiite-led government demolished the main Sunni anti-government protest camp on Monday.
Sixteen fighters from Isil, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has links to Al Qaeda, were killed in Khaldiyah, east of Ramadi, and 46 died in the city itself, said Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, a leader of the Sahwa Sunni militia fighting against the Sunni militants.
Iraqi troops and allied tribesmen surrounded Fallujah and fired artillery shells at targets occupied by up to 150 militants.
Dressed in black and waving Al Qaeda flags, hundreds of Sunni militants using machineguns and vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns battled tribesmen in Ramadi.
“There is no way to let Al Qaeda keep any foothold in Anbar,” said one tribal leader. “The battle is fierce and not easy because they are hiding inside residential areas.”
Isil has been tightening its grip in recent months in Anbar, a Sunni-dominated province near the Syrian border, in a bid to create an Islamic state across the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Under siege by government forces, Al Qaeda militants told residents in Ramadi that they were defending them against the Shiite-led government.
The unrest in the province presents a critical test for the prime minister, Nouri Al Maliki.
The deployment of tribesmen against the militants, fellow Sunnis, was made possible by a deal tribal leaders struck with the Baghdad government late on Thursday to counter Al Qaeda, which has seized government and police buildings in Ramadi and the province’s other main city Fallujah.
Tension has been high in Anbar, which occupies a third of Iraq’s territory, since police broke up a Sunni protest camp on Monday. At least 13 people were killed in clashes.
The turmoil in Iraq and recent deadly attacks in Lebanon highlight how the war in Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are battling a government backed by Shiite power Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Hizbollah militia, is feeding sectarian instability across the Middle East.
The deteriorating political climate made many Iraqis fear the country was heading for an explosion of Shiite-on-Sunni bloodshed that would fracture it along sectarian lines.
Those fears were stirred anew on Thursday when tribesmen, angry at the central government in Baghdad and what they perceive as Sunni marginalisation in politics, clashed with Iraqi troops trying to regain control of Fallujah and Ramadi.
But the agreement late on Thursday between the tribes and the government appeared to complicate the odds for Al Qaeda fighters seeking to establish local control.
“Those people are criminals who want to take over the city and kill the community,” said Sheikh Rafe’a Abdulkareem Albu Fahad, leading the tribal fight against Al Qaeda militants in Ramadi.
In Fallujah, militants grabbed loudspeakers after Friday prayers to call on worshippers to support them in their struggle.
There were thought to have been no clashes between tribesmen and militants in Fallujah, but masked insurgents have control over large parts of the city and have set up several checkpoints in the city.
Thursday’s agreement, if it holds, is likely to draw comparisons to a decision by local tribes in 2006 to join forces with US troops and rise up against Al Qaeda forces who seized control of most of Iraq’s Sunni areas after the 2003 US invasion.
American troops and local tribes finally beat back Al Qaeda in heavy fighting after a “surge” of US forces in 2006-07.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press
