At least six policemen were killed and 45 people were injured Thursday when dozens of Sunni militants took control of six districts in the Iraqi city of Samarra, an official said.
Groups of gunmen believed to be linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaeda breakaway group, stormed Samarra, some 120 km north of the Iraq's capital Baghdad, and seized six of the city's southern and eastern neighbourhoods after fierce clashes with security forces, the official told Xinhua.
The militants raised the black flag belonging to the ISIL on several government buildings and the main Sunni mosque in the city, located 1,500 metres away from a Shia shrine in the centre of the city.
Iraqi security forces surrounded the Shia shrine as well as the security headquarters and are waiting for reinforcement troops to prepare for a counter-attack, the source said.