At least 17 people were killed in clashes between Al Qaeda gunmen and rival fighters near the ancient Iraqi city of Samarra, officials and villagers said yesterday, as pressure grows on the Sunni Islamist group.

Gunbattles between Al Qaeda and the Islamic Army, a Sunni Arab nationalist group, broke out late on Friday in the remote villages of Al-Julam and Benat al-Hassan near Samarra, 100 km north of Baghdad, and ended early yesterday.

The villages were former Al Qaeda strongholds, but residents, many of them Islamic Army fighters, combined to drive them out.

Signs of Al Qaeda's weakening support were highlighted by an audiotape, featuring Osama bin Laden and aired last month, in which Bin Laden conceded wrongs had been committed in Iraq because of fanaticism in his group.

Bin Laden urged insurgent groups to unite under Al Qaeda's Iraq wing. The group has faced growing resistance because of its indiscriminate killings and the strict interpretation of Islam it seeks to impose.

A police source in Samarra said 17 Al Qaeda fighters were killed, as well as 15 Islamic Army fighters and villagers.

An Islamic Army source in one of the villages, who asked not to be identified, also said 17 Al Qaeda fighters had been killed but denied any of his men had died.

Abdullah Jubarah, deputy governor of Salahuddin province, said he did not have precise casualty figures from the fighting.

"We support the Islamic Army in this fighting. Anyone who fights Al Qaeda, we support them," Jubarah told Reuters.

The Islamic Army source said 18 Al Qaeda fighters, some of them wounded, had also been captured but would be released if Al Qaeda left the area.