DHAKA: Iraq has launched air attacks against Sunni Arab fighters who now control large parts of Anbar`s Fallujah and Ramadi cities in central Iraq.

The Defence Ministry released footage on Thursday that showed jets targeting fighters suspected of belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), a group linked to al-Qaeda, reports Al-Jazeera.

There have been clashes between the Iraqi military and Sunni fighters in Anbar province since armed men seized control of several police stations there just days earlier.
Iraq suffers highest death toll in years.

An Interior Ministry official told AFP news agency on Thursday that al-Qaeda-linked fighters were in control of large parts of Fallujah and Ramadi, the provincial capital.

"Half of Fallujah is in the hands of ISIL (al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) group, and the other half is in the control of" armed tribesmen, the official said.

In central and south Fallujah, witnesses said fighters had also set up checkpoints each manned by six to seven people.

"In Ramadi, it is similar - some areas are controlled by ISIL and other areas are controlled by" tribesmen, the interior ministry official said, referring to the Anbar provincial capital, which lies farther to the west.

Fighters attacked on Wednesday the main police station in Fallujah and ordered its staff to leave, before raiding its armoury and freeing 101 prisoners from its cells, police said.

Other police stations in the city were torched by fighters as most police abandoned their posts.

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi prime minister, ordered on Wednesday reinforcements to the mainly Sunni Arab province to tackle attacks by armed groups, reversing a decision just a day earlier to withdraw soldiers from Anbar cities and hand over control to police.

Other attacks

In other violence outside Anbar, a pickup truck laden with explosives blew up on a busy commercial street on Thursday evening in the city of Balad Ruz, 70km northeast of Baghdad, destroying several shops.

At least 19 people were killed and 37 were wounded, according to the security officials and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the press.

In other attacks on Thursday, a bomb stuck onto a public minibus exploded in Baghdad`s Shaab district, killing four people and wounding six.

Three soldiers were killed and five were wounded in a bombing of their patrols in the northern city of Mosul, the officials said.

Fighters also carried out two attacks in Latifiyah, a mainly Sunni town 30km south of Baghdad, the officials said. A bombing of an outdoor vegetable market killed five civilians and wounded nine others.

In the other attack, two soldiers were killed and five others were wounded when their post came under gunfire.

Three fighters were killed in the exchange of fire.

BDST: 1144 HRS, JAN 03, 2014
RS