ERBIL, Iraq
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants have taken control of the Al Sejer region north of Fallujah, according to tribal sources.
Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 injured in the fighting which lasted for hours on Saturday, said the sources.
"Iraqi army troops started withdrawing from most of Fallujah regions, with no clear reason, which allowed the armed groups led by ISIL militants to restore most of these areas without fighting for it, especially the eastern areas of Fallujah," said the sources, who declined to be named.
The armed insurgents also captured an unidentified number of Iraqi soldiers and took their arms, vehicles and equipment.
The Iraqi army had restored control over Al Sejer about a month ago after it was taken over by ISIL militants early in 2014.
Militants captured
However, the town of Fallujah, the Karma region and neighborhoods of Al Ramadi are still under the control of ISIL and other tribes who oppose outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Meanwhile, 10 ISIL militants were captured by tribes in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad on Sunday, according to Iraqi security officials.
The younger brother of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the leader of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers in Iraq who was killed in 2006 - is reportedly among those captured.
“The tribes of Al Dhuluiya - 80 km north of Baghdad - captured the militants as they were trying to enter the region and handed them over to the Iraqi army," the officials said.
Meanwhile, 10 civilians were killed and 40 injured in a mortar attack in Tal Afar, north western Iraq, believed to have been carried out by ISIL militants on Sunday, according to a medical source.
Formidable force
The Shia-majority region, about 50 km west of Mosul, is under government control.
The corpses of 128 Iraqi soldiers and police officers killed in clashes with ISIL militants were also received by medical staff in Mosul on Sunday, medical officials said.
The ISIL, which developed into a formidable force inside Syria, has extended its reach in Iraq since Tuesday, gaining near-complete control of the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit and seizing Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
The group seized large swathes of western Iraq’s Anbar Province in January, including much of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, flashpoints of the US-led war in 2003.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in recent months, which the Iraqi government blames on ISIL.
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