Sunni militants have captured the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the mayor and residents say.
Mayor Abdulal Abdoul told The Associated Press that his town, 420km northwest of Baghdad and close to the Syrian border, was taken just before dawn on Monday.
The town has a population of some 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Shi'ite and Sunni Turkomen.
Residents in the town reached by phone confirmed its capture by militants. They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.
The fall of Tal Afar comes a week after militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in a lightning offensive.
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