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By Ziad al-Sanjary and Ahmed Rasheed MOSUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sunni insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq. Residents reached by telephone in the city of Tal Afar said it had fallen to the rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after a battle that saw heavy casualties on both sides. Tal Afar is a short drive west from Mosul, the north's main city, which the ISIL fighters seized last week at the start of a drive that has plunged the country into the worst crisis since U.S. troops withdrew. The advance has alarmed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite supporters in Iran as well as the United States, which helped bring Maliki to power after its 2003 invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.More...