BAGHDAD
At least 11 people were killed and 23 injured in a fresh round of violence on Friday in Iraq's western Anbar province, medical and security sources said.
The worst violence on Friday was seen in provincial capital Ramadi, where clashes between Iraqi police and Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen left nine people dead and 11 injured.
An army artillery barrage in the city of Fallujah, meanwhile, left two children dead and 13 people injured.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent in Ramadi said that clashes between police backed by local tribesman and Al-Qaeda's regional affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, spilled over into several parts of Ramadi.
As of 5pm GMT, sporadic clashes were still ongoing in the southern and eastern parts of the city, he added.
A security source told AA that Iraqi forces had managed to kill six Al-Qaeda gunmen. A medical source, meanwhile, said three tribesmen had been killed and 11 others injured in the clashes.
The predominantly-Sunni Anbar province has recently been the scene of mounting violence between army troops and armed Sunni tribesman.
On Monday, clashes erupted in the province after government troops moved in to evict a months-old sit-in in the city of Ramadi staged by tribesmen opposed to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Protesters had accused al-Malikis' Shiite-dominated government of anti-Sunni discrimination and had called for its dismissal.
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.
Local tribesmen later expressed their support for local police against Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen who claimed that they had established control over the province's two main cities. Tribal chieftains, however, rejected the presence of army troops and vowed to fight off any military forces dispatched to the province by Baghdad.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
