Iraq 's security forces killed at least 38 mostly Sunni protesters and gunmen in the northern city of Hawija on Tuesday, escalating months of brewing sectarian tensions and protests into outright armed conflict.

Anti-riot security forces attacked the Hawija protest camp during the early morning hours of Tuesday, according to security officials in the restive province of Kirkuk , killed 25 people, burning tents and arresting 75 protesters.

The police clampdown sparked an immediate reaction from the Sunni militants in Iraq 's western provinces who have long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Shiite-dominated national government in Baghdad . Gunmen in the surrounding Sunni dominated region attacked police checkpoints in Riyadh and Rashad, holding them for a several hours before military reinforcements were able to launch a counterattack.

Iraqi military officials said they killed 13 gunmen. The military had imposed a curfew in regions south and west of Kirkuk --long a tense flashpoint in Iraq 's ethnic and religious conflict. Soldiers also cut road access from Baghdad to Kirkuk , from Salahuddin to Kirkuk , and from Mosul to Kirkuk .

The flare-up in Iraq 's sparsely populated, desert northwestern region marks a troubling turn for a country that sits on the edge of sectarian conflict. Kirkuk and the Sunni-dominated region to its east have seen swelling protests against Iraq 's Shiite-dominated leadership in Baghdad since late last year.

An uptick in attacks by Sunni-aligned Al Qaeda militant groups targeting Shiite civilians, alongside the growing strength of Sunni extremist groups in neighboring Syria, have turned Iraq into a crucible of regional sectarian tension.

Though Iraq already saw highly destructive sectarian conflict during the height of the US engagement in the country in 2006 and 2007, the so-called "Arab Spring" political uprisings in Iraq 's neighbors have made the region far more sensitive.

If Sunni militants respond violently to the Iraqi government's raid on Tuesday, it could set off a chain reaction that could envelope the entire region. Already on Tuesday, Sunni religious leaders who had counseled peaceful for months were calling on their followers to take up arms against the Baghdad government.

"We were always telling the protesters not to carry a gun or start attack the armed forces because we wanted the peaceful demanding to go on," said Abdul Malik Al Sa'adi said in a statement on his official website.

"Now self-defense has become a religious and legal duty, so defend yourselves and he who will be killed defending his money, family or country will be considered a martyr."

Deepening the divisions in Iraq 's politics, Shiite-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki announced that he had sacked Kurdish Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Mr. Maliki had previously warned that he would replace the Kurdish cabinet ministers unless they ended a boycott of cabinet meetings that began in January due to Mr. Maliki holding a hotly contested budget vote without the Kurdish members' present,

Tuesday's violence began when anti-Maliki Sunni activists marched to a military checkpoint following last Friday's afternoon prayers. A fight with military forces ensued that left one soldier and one protester dead. Protesters stole some of the military's weapons, according to Iraqi security forces.

The military responded by barricading the nearby Hawija camp, preventing protesters from entering or leaving. After the protesters refused to turn in the protesters who the military suspected had killed the soldier by a Sunday ultimatum, the military invaded the camp on Tuesday morning.

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