Al-Qaeda now has a stronghold in Iraq:
BAGHDAD — Black-clad Sunni militants of Al Qaeda destroyed the Falluja police headquarters and mayor’s office, planted their flag atop other government buildings and decreed the western Iraqi city to be their new independent state on Friday in an escalating threat to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose forces were struggling to retake control late into the night.
Qaeda-Aligned Militants in Iraq Claim Falluja as Independent State
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/world/middleeast/fighting-in-falluja-and-ramadi.html?ref=world&_r=0