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Gunmen fired from rooftops at the buildings, which house the
Anbar governorate building and police headquarters, while
security forces and tribal fighters tried to prevent the
militants from advancing.
Mosques broadcast appeals for reinforcements to prevent the
Sunni militants taking full control of Ramadi, which would be a
major setback for government forces after they broke an Islamic
State siege of Iraq's biggest oil refinery this week.
Most of Ramadi, about 90 km (55 miles) west of Baghdad, and the
surrounding Sunni Muslim province of Anbar is already held by
Islamic State.
It also seized much of northern Iraq from the Shi'ite-led
government in June, plunging Iraq into its worst security crisis
since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Air strikes by the United States and its Western and Arab allies
since August contained an Islamic State offensive against
Kurdish forces but have not seriously challenged its control
over much of Iraq's Sunni Arab territory.
In Anbar the group has continued to make advances, capturing the
town of Hit last month. However in Salahuddin province, north of
Baghdad, Iraqi security forces broke a months-long Islamic State
siege of Baiji refinery on Tuesday.
MOSQUES APPEAL
In Ramadi on Friday gunmen fired at the government complex from
nearby rooftops, using the height of the buildings to get a
clear shot at the area surrounded by concrete blast walls, said
provincial council member Hathal al-Fahdawi.
"Mosques are asking anyone who can carry weapons to confront the
attackers," Fahdawi told Reuters.
The fighting inside the city occurred as militants launched
coordinated attacks to the east and west of Ramadi.
Fahdawi said Islamic State fighters attacked the village of Al
Shujairiya, about 20 km east of Ramadi, and also ambushed and
killed a local police commander as he left his home on Friday
morning.
Friday's attacks started around 3 am (midnight GMT), he said.
Officials in the city also reported heavy clashes to the west of
Ramadi and fighting to the north and south.
They came a day after a suicide bomber blew up a lorry on a
bridge over the Euphrates near Ramadi, killing at least five
people.
(Reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing
by Michael Georgy and Andrew Heavens)
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