Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Saturday freed 1300 students from the University of Anbar, hours after they took them hostage

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Saturday freed 1300 students from the University of Anbar, hours after they took them hostage, a province official said.

"All hostages left the campus and were taken to a safe place in Ramadi," Faleh al-Essawi, deputy head of Ramadi's provincial council, told Anadolu Agency.

He said that Iraqi security forces will give ISIL militants a few hours to surrender before storming the university building.

ISIL militants had earlier blown up a bridge near to the University of Anbar in Ramadi and stormed into the university.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered the arming of tribes in the western province of Anbar to counter ISIL, an Iraqi lawmaker said Saturday. "Tribes that fight against ISIL side by side with the army must be armed," Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defense committee, told Anadolu Agency.