Six people were killed in Tuesday clashes between army forces and armed tribesmen in Iraq's western city of Fallujah, according to a tribal source.

"A group of armed tribesman attacked an Iraqi army site in Fallujah's southern Al-Naimiya district," the source, preferring anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.

"The clashes, which went on for hours, left four soldiers and two tribesmen dead," he added.

He went on to say that tribesmen had seized the site and weaponry stored therein.

The source accused the Iraqi army of shelling several residential areas of Fallujah, injuring four people.

Fallujah General Hospital Director Abdel-Sattar Lawas confirmed to AA that four civilians had been admitted to hospital on Tuesday.

Iraqi authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Fallujah and Ramadi, the two main cities of Iraq's western Anbar province, have been ravaged by violence since December, when Iraqi security forces dismantled a months-long anti-government sit-in outside Ramadi.

The sit-in was meant to protest perceived anti-Sunni discrimination by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The Iraqi government says its military operations in the province target the Al-Qaeda-allied Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.

But local Sunni tribes, which deny any links to the militant group, voice anger over continued civilian causalities and have vowed to resist government troops deployed to the area.

PHOTO CAPTION

Gunmen patrol in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014.

AA