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Iraqi jets carried out overnight strikes on Saturday targeting locations of gunmen suspected of being members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Ramadi and Falluja as Iraqi troops trying to retake Anbar province from a mixture of Islamist and tribal foes battled al Qaeda fighters in Sunni province.

The video footage handed out by Iraq's defense ministry showed vehicles and buildings were targeted in the air raid.

Falluja has been held since Monday by Sunni Muslim militants linked to al Qaeda and tribal fighters united in their opposition to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a serious challenge to the authority of his Shi'ite-led government in Anbar province.

Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been steadily tightening its grip in the Sunni-dominated desert province bordering Syria in recent months in a bid to create a Sunni Muslim state straddling the frontier.

But this week's seizure of terr