BAGHDAD — Sunni gunmen, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, made gains in the contested Iraqi city of Ramadi Tuesday in a setback for pro-government forces, as attacks killed 10 in the capital.
The clashes came after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for Iraqi leaders to address the “root causes” of nationwide unrest, echoing calls from diplomats for Baghdad to focus more on political reconciliation.
But Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has ruled out talks to resolve the standoff, as April 30 parliamentary elections loom and his government faces Iraq’s worst protracted period of bloodshed since it was emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war in 2008.
Parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, which lies just 60 kilometres from Baghdad, fell out of government control more than two weeks ago, the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
In recent days, Iraqi forces and allied tribes had been retaking areas of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, from militants and anti-government tribesmen. The latest clashes represent a setback for Baghdad and threaten to further prolong the crisis. Gunmen, including those affiliated with the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seized all or parts of a half-dozen neighbourhoods in the south and centre of the city in firefights that began late Monday evening and carried on into Tuesday, according to a police captain and an AFP journalist.
Two policemen were killed and five others wounded in the clashes, and three police vehicles set ablaze, according to Dr Ahmed Al Ani at the city’s main hospital.
Sporadic clashes continued in the affected neighbourhoods Tuesday, while shelling struck the Andalus neighbourhood of central Ramadi and damaged houses, a police officer said.
Civil servants had largely returned to work and most shops were reopened, an AFP journalist said, but schools remained closed.
Gunfights also erupted in the Albubali area between Ramadi and Fallujah where security forces have repeatedly clashed with militants.
In Fallujah, government employees returned to work, but the city remained in the control of gunmen, said an AFP journalist there.
A doctor in the city’s main hospital said at least 26 people were killed in Fallujah and surrounding areas in the past two weeks.
The army stayed on the city’s eastern frontier Tuesday. Shelling in the city wounded two people, witnesses said, while brief clashes could be heard in the city Monday evening.
Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old Sunni Arab anti-government protest camp.
The violence spread to Fallujah, and militants moved in and seized the city and parts of Ramadi after security forces withdrew.
ISIL has been active in the Anbar fighting, but so have anti-government tribesmen.
The army has largely stayed outside of Fallujah during the crisis, with analysts warning any assault on the city would likely cause significant civilian casualties.
In Baghdad, shootings and bombings killed 10 people, including a senior judge, a day after attacks in and around the capital, including four car bombs against civilian targets, killed 30.
