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By Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub The Associated Press

A gunman holds his weapon in Fallujah, Iraq, 40 miles west of Baghdad, in January. Militants, many from the al-Qaeda-breakaway group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, have overrun Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. (Associated Press file)

BAGHDAD Fighting in Iraq's western Anbar province, now in its fifth month, appears to have bogged down, with government forces unable to drive out Islamic militants who took over one of the area's main cities.

The repercussions are rippling through the country's economy.

The large, desert province is a major crossroads. The main highways linking Baghdad and other parts of Iraq to Syria and Jordan run through it. Fighting has not only dislodged 75,000 people from their homes and forced shutdowns of their businesses. It has disrupted shipping, inflating prices of goods in Baghdad and elsewhere. Fears of the road have gotten so bad that Iraq has had to stop shipments of oil to Jordan.

Shoppers buy vegetables in Jamila market Friday in Baghdad. Fighting in Iraq's western Anbar province has raised prices of goods in Baghdad. (Karim Kadim, The Associated Press)

Anwar Salah, co-owner of al-Baqiee travel agency in Baghdad, said his company used to run more than 13 trips a day by SUVs shuttling passengers between Baghdad and the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Now people avoid the highway, which runs near the flashpoint Anbar cities of Fallujah and Anbar. So his firm is down to one trip every other day, and profits have plunged by 90 percent, he said.

"Most of the drivers who used to work for me are now either jobless or working in other professions," he said. "We are part of the country's miserable situation."

Militants, many from the al-Qaeda-breakaway group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, overran Fallujah and parts of Anbar's capital, Ramadi, at the beginning of the year, taking advantage of tensions between the Sunni community, which dominates Anbar, and the Shiite-led central government.

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Fighting in Anbar takes toll on Iraq's economy