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03Jan14


75 al-Qaida militants killed in clashes in western Iraq


At least 75 al-Qaida-linked militants, including one of their top leaders, were killed on Friday in the clashes with Iraqi security forces and local tribesmen in western Iraq, police said.

Fifty-two militants were killed in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital city, and 23 others were killed in the nearby areas of the city, which is about 100 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Among the dead was Abdul Rahman al-Baghdadi, one of the leaders of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as al-Qaida in Iraq, the police source said.

Clashes continued on Friday in Ramadi and Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, as Iraqi forces and tribesmen were fighting the al-Qaida militants who have been controlling some parts of the two cities.

Tensions flared in the province on Monday when Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi. In order to defuse the situation and avoid fighting the tribesmen, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the army to withdraw from the cities in Anbar.

On Wednesday, clashes erupted in several Anbar's cities, including Ramadi and Fallujah, after al-Qaida militants broke into the cities and attacked several police stations in the two cities, including the police headquarters in Fallujah just after the Iraqi army withdrew.

Late Wednesday night, al-Maliki said he changed his earlier decision to withdraw the army from riotous cities in Anbar province and would instead send reinforcements to the province where clashes continued.

"I will not withdraw troops and will send additional forces" to Anbar province in response to the requests from the residents and the local government, the official Iraqiya television station quoted al-Maliki as saying.

Tension was already running high in the Sunni heartland of Anbar after the Iraqi security forces on Saturday captured the Sunni Arab tribal leader Ahmad al-Alwani and killed his brother. Al-Alwani is also a lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament.

The Sunnis have been carrying out a year-long protest, accusing the Shiite-led government of marginalizing them and its Shiite- dominated security forces of indiscriminately arresting, torturing and killing their sons.

Alwani is one of the outspoken leading figures in the anti- government protests. Some opponent lawmakers have been demanding to lift his immunity, but their demand was rejected by the parliament.

[Source: Xinhua, Baghdad, 03Jan14]

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