At least 17 people were killed in clashes between al Qaeda gunmen and a rival insurgent group in two villages near the Iraqi city of Samarra today.
Gun battles between al Qaeda and the Islamic Army, a Sunni Arab nationalist group, broke out late last night in the remote villages of al-Julam and Benat al-Hassan near Samarra and ended early today.
The villages were former al Qaeda strongholds but villagers, many of them Islamic Army fighters, combined to drive out the Sunni Islamist group.
A police source in Samarra said 17 al Qaeda fighters were killed, as well as 15 Islamic Army fighters and villagers.
An Islamic Army source in one of the villages, who asked not to be identified, also said 17 al Qaeda fighters had been killed but denied any of his men had died.
He said 18 al Qaeda fighters, some of them wounded, had also been captured but would be released if al Qaeda left the area.
"We are negotiating with al Qaeda, but on condition that they leave this area," he said.
The Samarra police source said no Iraqi or US security forces were involved in the gun battles.
Similar clashes between al Qaeda and the Islamic Army near ancient Samarra last month killed 16 militants.