ANBAR, Iraq
Fourcivilians were killed and 11 injured on Thursday in an army artillery barrage on residential areas of Iraq's western city of Fallujah, tribal and medical sources have said.
"Fallujah General Hospital received four bodies and two injured people on Thursday morning after the army shelled homes in different parts of the city," hospital director Abdel-Sattar Lawas told Anadolu Agency.
Tribal leader Sheikh Rafei al-Gemeili, meanwhile, told AA that clashes between armed tribesmen and government troops continued to rage in four different districts in southern and eastern Fallujah.
He said nine people, including women and children, had been injured by army shelling in the city.
According to al-Gemeili, armed tribesmen bombed a police station in Al-Karma in eastern Fallujah after police had surrendered the building.
"Tribesmen will not allow the army to enter the city in light of the ongoing marginalization of Sunnis by the sectarian government," he said.
Iraqi authorities have yet to comment on the claims.
Late last December, violence broke out in the predominantly-Sunni Anbar province between government troops and armed tribesmen, leaving over 150 civilians dead, over 500 injured and tens of thousands displaced in Ramadi – one of Anbar's main cities – alone, according to official statements.
Fighting erupted when Iraqi security forces dismantled a months-long anti-government sit-in outside Ramadi. The sit-in was meant to protest perceived anti-Sunni discrimination by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The Iraqi government says military operations in the province target Al-Qaeda-allied militants. But local Sunni tribes, which deny any links to the militant group, voice anger over continued civilian causalities and have vowed to resist government troops deployed to the area.
By Aref Youssef
englishnews@aa.com.tr
