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BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Army shelled the western city of Falluja overnight to try to wrest control of it from Sunni Muslim militants and local tribesmen, killing at least eight people, according to tribal leaders and officials on Saturday.

Falluja has been held since Monday by militants linked to Al Qaeda and by some tribal fighters united in their opposition to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, posing a serious challenge in Anbar Province to the authority of his Shiite-led central government.

Medical officials in Falluja said that in addition to the deaths, 30 people were wounded in the army shelling.

In recent months, the militants, members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, have been tightening their grip in the Sunni-dominated desert province of Anbar, near the Syrian border, in a bid to create an Islamic state across the Iraqi-Syrian borders.

Tribal loyalties are fluid in the region, and the government has tried to secure the support of local tribal leaders with offers of guns and money. In Ramadi, the other major city in Anbar, the army and tribesmen who have decided for now to side with the central government have worked together to counter the militants seeking to take control.

But in Falluja, the militants' task has been made easier by the cooperation of other tribesmen, who have joined forces against the government with ISIS.

Tension has been running high in Anbar, once the heart of Iraq's insurgency after the 2003 American-led invasion, since the Iraqi police broke up a Sunni protest camp on Monday. At least 13 people were killed in those clashes.

The escalating tension shows that the civil war in Syria, where mostly Sunni rebels are battling President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by the Shiite power leaders in Iran, is spilling over to other countries like Iraq and threatening a delicate sectarian balance.

Officials and witnesses in Falluja said the northern and eastern parts of the city were under the control of tribesmen and militants after residents fled those areas to take refuge from the army shelling.

Militants have deployed snipers on top of empty houses and government buildings to prevent soldiers from entering the city.