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BAGHDAD — A government airstrike killed 25 al-Qaeda-linked militants in a besieged province west of Baghdad amid fierce clashes Tuesday between Iraqi special forces and insurgents battling for control of the key cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, Iraqi officials said.

The al-Qaeda gains in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar — once bloody battlegrounds for U.S. troops — pose the most serious challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government since the departure of American forces in late 2011.

Iraqi forces and fighters from government-allied Sunni tribes have been battling militants to try to recapture the strategic territory, seized last week by an al-Qaeda-linked group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Iraqi military spokesman Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said the Iraqi air force struck an operations center for the militants on the outskirts of Ramadi, the provincial capital, killing 25 fighters who were holed up inside.

He didn’t give more details about how the death toll was confirmed but cited intelligence reports. It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claim.

The airstrike came after clashes erupted about 12 miles west of Fallujah following the capture of an army officer and four soldiers in the area a day earlier, provincial spokesman Dhari al-Rishawi said.

There was no immediate word on casualties for those clashes.

Iraq’s Cabinet met Tuesday to discuss the situation in Anbar and called for the mobilization of all efforts “to support the army and security services in expelling terrorists,” according to a government statement.

Military operations would continue, the Cabinet statement added, until Iraq is “cleansed” of terrorism.

Violence spiked after the government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp last April. Militants have also targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.

The attacks continued Tuesday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing two people there and wounding 55, some critically, according to Maj. Raid Emad Rasheed.