RAMADI: Militants freed more than 100 prisoners, clashed with security forces and burned police stations in cities west of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday.

Gunmen attacked the headquarters in the city of Fallujah, but gave the police a chance to leave, which they took, officers said, after which the militants freed 101 prisoners and stole weapons.

In Ramadi, further west, security forces clashed sporadically with militants, who burned four police stations in the city. The journalist saw four torched police stations in Ramadi and said two military vehicles had also been burned.

Clashes erupted in the Ramadi area on Monday as Iraqi forces dismantled the country’s main Sunni anti-government protest camp, which was located on a nearby highway.At least 14 people, all but one of them militants, died in violence in the area on Monday and Tuesday.

Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki said on Tuesday that troops would pull out of cities in Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, in a move apparently aimed at defusing tensions in the wake of the camp’s closure. —AFP