Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters launched a major offensive against Iraqi forces in a town just 20km west of the capital Baghdad, killing at least 18 soldiers and militiamen backing the army.
A separate ISIL suicide attack, meanwhile, near the city of Fallujah on Sunday left 14 Iraqi policemen dead and another 25 wounded. 
On the outskirts of Baghdad, ISIL seized the village of Khdim Adhab in Abu Ghraib - as well as a silo and a water plant in the town - after attacking several security posts, military sources told Al Jazeera.
A number of policemen and tribal fighters were also abducted by the group to unknown locations, the sources said on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.
However, Baghdad's operations command centre denied that any of its forces were taken prisoner, saying two suicide attackers were killed during a foiled assault. 
"The town of Abu Ghraib is considered administratively to be part of Baghdad city - it is on the western outskirts of Baghdad," reported Al Jazeera's Osama Mohamed from Baghdad.

"ISIL for more than a year wanted to get closer to the city of Baghdad and Abu Ghraib prison," he said, referring to the jail that gained notoriety after US troops abused Iraqi prisoners there after the 2003 invasion.
Fighting was raging between ISIL fighters and government forces at an army headquarters near Abu Ghraib, the miltary sources said.
In the neighbouring city of Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, ISIL took control over a police building after killing at least 14 Iraqi soldiers and militiamen following a suicide car-bomb blast.
Clashes that followed the bombing forced government forces to retreat further southeast of the city in Anbar province.
ISIL's brazen offensive near Baghdad came after government forces took back significant territory in Anbar province, which largely remains one of the group's strongholds. The city of Mosul is still fully under ISIL control.
Iraq's government announced in late December that its troops had recaptured the key city of Ramadi, but fighting with ISIL has continued on the city's outskirts since then.