Infighting leaves dozens of Afghan insurgents dead (Roundup)

Mar 7, 2010, 14:34 GMT

Kunduz, Afghanistan, - More than 50 fighters and an unknown number of civilians are suspected to have been killed during infighting between two rival insurgents groups in northern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

The battle between Taliban militants and loyalists of the Hezbi Islami network, another militant group that has waged an insurgency against the Afghan government and international troops, began in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district of the northern Baghlan province on Saturday, Kabir Andarabi, the provincial police chief said.

'More than 50 fighters, including 35 Hezbi Islami militants, and the rest Taliban, have been killed so far,' Andarabi said, citing intelligence information provided by the Afghan government agents on the ground.

Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for northern region put the death toll for the militants at 60, and added that Afghan police had surrounded the area. He said several ambulances also arrived on Sunday in the district to help evacuate the injured people.

At least 25 Hezbi Islami fighters defected to government forces on Sunday while several dozens more announced their readiness to join the government, Mohammad Akbar Barekzai, Baghlan's provincial governor said.

Amir Gul, the district governor for Baghlan-e-Markazi said the fighting began in the area after a group of Hezbi Islami fighters had decided to surrender to government forces, but the Taliban tried to stop them.

However, Gholam Sakhi, a tribal elder in the region said that the two groups began fighting over control of several areas in the district. Both Taliban and Hezbi Islami fighters are active in Baghlan and the neighbouring province of Kunduz.

Relations between Taliban fighters and Hezbi Islami, led by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have been strained.

In some areas they jointly carry out attacks against Afghan and NATO targets, while in other regions they operate independently.

The Taliban are the main group leading the Afghan insurgency since the ouster of their regime in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

There have been some encounters between the groups in the past, but the ongoing battle in Baghlan marks the first major infighting between the two insurgents groups since 2001. It was also not known if the clash was localized or represented a deeper rift in the Islamic groups' leadership.

Meanwhile, five civilians, including two children, were killed in separate roadside bomb explosions in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday.

Two children were killed and two others were wounded in blast that was triggered by explosives hidden in a bag placed near an irrigation canal in the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.

Another civilian was killed in the neighbouring province of Helmand when a roadside bomb struck a NATO military convoy in Baba Jee area of Nahr Saraj district on Saturday, the statement said.

Also on Saturday, two more civilians were killed in the eastern province of Laghman when their motorbike was blown up by a roadside mine, a separate police statement said.

The ministry blamed the 'enemies of Afghanistan,' a common phrase used by Afghan officials to describe Taliban insurgents, for the blasts.

Taliban militants, who were driven from power some eight years ago in a US-led invasion, rely heavily on roadside bombings as part of their insurgency against the Afghan government and NATO-led international forces in the country.

Most of the nearly 520 NATO soldiers who died in Afghanistan last year were killed by roadside attacks, according to NATO military.