The Thursday takeover of part of Sulaiman Bek and nearby villages in Salaheddin province came as al-Qaeda linked militant groups control all of one major city and part of another in the western province of Anbar, in a stand-off that has lasted for weeks.

Talib al-Bayati, a local official for the Sulaiman Bek area, told AFP that security forces backed by tanks and other armor began attacking militant-held areas on Friday morning.

Engineers moved in first to search for bombs, Bayati said.

Security forces killed two militants in the area on Friday, after a helicopter strike killed seven on Thursday.

The violence is the latest violence to hit the region.

Last July, some 150 militants carried out a coordinated operation in the Sulaiman Bek area, attacking with mortar rounds, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The violence drew security forces away from a nearby highway, where several dozen militants set up a checkpoint and executed 14 Shiite Muslim truck drivers.

Sulaiman Bek was also briefly seized by militants in late April last year.

Iraqi authorities face a far more serious problem in Anbar province, where al-Qaeda militants have held all of the city of Fallujah and parts of provincial capital Ramadi for weeks.

NJF/NJF