July 6, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5,1424

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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, July 5: Eight people have been killed in the latest clashes between factions in northern Afghanistan where British forces are heading this month to help the government tackle lawlessness.

The violence came after the Afghan government said it had worked out a plan to ease tension in the volatile north and the two main factions had agreed to demilitarize its main city, Mazar-i-Sharif.

Fighters from the two main rival factions, both of whose leaders are members of the transitional government, have clashed repeatedly in Mazar-i-Sharif and surrounding areas since the Taliban’s demise in 2001.

In the latest fighting, two people were killed and one wounded on Friday night in a battle between the forces of ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and ethnic Tajik commander Ustad Atta Mohammad, a senior official in Atta’s force said on Saturday. But an official in Dostum’s faction said his men were not involved in the fighting. —Reuters