BAGHDAD
A tribal source in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi insisted that tribesman, not al-Qaeda-allied groups, are fighting against the Iraqi army.
"Clashes continued through Monday night in Fallujah and its outskirts," the tribal leader told Anadolu Agency.
"Fighting is still raging in the western parts of Ramadi between the tribesmen and the army troops," he added.
On Monday, eight Iraqis were killed and 66 others wounded in clashes between armed tribesmen and government forces in Anbar province's two main cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
Clashes erupted in the predominantly Sunni province last week after troops moved in to evict a months-old sit-in in the provincial capital Ramadi staged by tribesmen opposed to the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The sit-in dispersal came two days after Sunni lawmaker Ahmed al-Alwani, a prominent anti-Maliki protest organizer, was arrested in a raid on his Ramadi home by Iraqi forces. Six people were killed in the raid, including al-Alwani's brother.
Tribal chieftains oppose the presence of army troops and have vowed to fight off any military forces dispatched to the province.
In a Monday statement, al-Maliki called on Fallujah tribesmen and residents to "flush out the terrorists from their neighborhoods to avoid the dangers of armed confrontation."
But Majid al-Guraisi, chief of the Al-Guraisat tribe, told AA that most militants from the Qaeda-allied Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had withdrawn from Fallujah, leaving the Iraqi army and the tribesmen locked in a fierce, armed showdown.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
