On Friday night a clash broke out between the Islamic Army, a Sunni Arab nationalist group and Al Qaeda, leaving almost 18 Al Qaeda fighters dead, L.A. Times reports.

Reuters reports that the battle sites were remote villages of al-Julam and Benat al-Hassan near Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, former al-Qaeda strongholds.

Abu Ibrahim, the Islamic Army’s leader said: “Yesterday at 3:30 p.m., we had the toughest battle ever with them. . . . The battle lasted for more than three hours.”

Ibrahim said that 16 fighters were arrested by his group, including some foreigners and they were taken to the Islamic Army prisons, near Samarra.

Al-Qaeda’s methods have been rejected by the Islamic Army in Iraq. Thus members of the Islamic Army have aligned with American soldiers in order to provide security in their region and carry battles with members that are still aligned with Al-Qaeda, Washington Post reports.

According to Abu Ibrahim, Islamic Army has killed 18 fighters who are suspected to be members of Al-Qaeda.

Maj. Bakir al-Bazi of the Samarra police said: “Yes, there were heavy clashes started last night, but we did not intervene because it was between the resistance factions. But we will try to open channels with the Islamic Army to fight al-Qaeda.”

The clashes are a response to a recent attack carried on by al-Qaeda that killed four of their leaders. One of them was killed in a bazaar after being kidnapped from his house.

Hussain al-Zubaidi, an official with the Diyala Provincial Council said that members of the forces in Diyala province, who work with U.S. and Iraqi troops contributed at the arrest of five al-Qaeda leaders on Saturday. According to a statement issued by the U.S. military 10 people were arrested in central and northern parts of Iraq. One American soldier was killed and three others were injured in a bomb attack in Diyala province on Friday.

In Baghdad a bomb exploded on Saturday in a Shiite district near a minibus. Two people were killed and seven were injured.