Al-Qaeda group claims key town in Sunni insurgency heartland

Violence continues in Iraq as government forces press on to clear the militants in the desert province of Anbar. Fighting continues in the provincial capital Ramadi. And in the neighboring Fallujah, the town center has fallen completely into the hands of fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Levant. Government troops have withdrawn and positioned themselves on the edge of town. The violence broke out in late December, as security forces started the clearing mission. It quickly evolved into a military confrontation with Islamist insurgents. At least a hundred people have died in the fighting. Anbar province is bordered by Syria and Jordan. Its population is almost entirely Sunni. Anbar is the heartland of the Sunni insurgency which rose up against US troops and the Iraqi government after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.