BLOODY clashes between Afghan insurgents have left up to 79 people dead.
The death toll included 19 civilians in a lawless part of the country beyond the reach of government or Nato forces, officials said yesterday.
Fighting in a remote stretch of Baghlan province, in northern Afghanistan, broke out on Saturday, police
said, and continued through the weekend. It was not clear what had triggered the violence.
Most of the dead were fighters aligned with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord once bankrolled by America during the anti-Russian resistance, said police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi.
Hekmatyar's men – part of the Hezb-i Islami group – clashed with Taleban fighters, part of the main armed opposition group led by the remnants of hardline regime removed during the US-led 2001 invasion. Around 20 of the dead were Taleban.
Both groups are opposed to the Afghan government and the presence of foreign forces in the country, although both are being courted by President Hamid Karzai for upcoming peace talks.
Taleban spokesmen routinely claim there is no difference between the groups. In reality, Hekmatyar's men hold sway in the area immediately east of Kabul. The Taleban are traditionally strongest in Kandahar and the south. Baghlan belongs to neither.
Hekmatyar served briefly as Afghanistan's prime minister. He fought the northern alliance during Afghanistan's civil war and sided with the Taleban as they swept to power in the late 1990s.
He is widely tipped as the insurgent leader most amenable to negotiations.
