HERAT, Aug 17: Bitter fighting raged around the main western Afghan city of Herat on Tuesday after forces opposed to governor Ismael Khan captured a key district and moved closer to Herat, sending residents fleeing in panic.

Troops loyal to Khan, governor of vast Herat province bordering Iran, have been battling the forces of rival Pashtun commander Amanullah Khan for the past four days. At least 60 people were killed in clashes at the weekend, officials have said.

On Tuesday morning Amanullah's forces broke through Ismael Khan's frontline at Astrakan district, some 85 kilometres south of Herat, officials on both sides said. "In the morning Ismael Khan's troops attacked Amanullah's. Later the fighting became very tense and Amanullah's troops broke through Khan's frontline at Astraskan," a local intelligence official said.

Amanullah told the Afghan Islamic Press that Khan's forces had retreated from Astrakan. "As a result our forces have captured Astrakan. Our forces are now positioned between Astrakan and Herat city," he told the news agency.

As US warplanes flew overhead, patrolling Herat and surrounding districts, citizens living near Herat airport, some 20 kilometres south of the city centre, fled their homes as Amanullah's troops approached, residents said.

Governor Khan was seen distributing weapons to civilians at police headquarters and intelligence headquarters. Uniformed and plain-clothes armed men were stationed at every major intersection on Herat's streets.

Soldiers from the Afghan National Army, part of a contingent of 1,500 dispatched from Kabul on Sunday and Monday, have secured Shindand airport, also south of the city, where fighting broke out early Saturday.

On the weekend Amanullah's troops looted government offices and private houses in Shindand and fighting around Shindand remained severe, Western and Afghan intelligence officials said.

The latest offensive caps a string of factional clashes between rival warlords battling for control of the western provinces of Herat, Farah, Badghis and Ghor in recent months.

Khan has ruled the city with an iron fist bringing peace and prosperity to its streets since the fall of the Taliban, but cracking down hard on his opponents. He has also been at loggerheads with Kabul over his reluctance to remit taxes on an estimated monthly income of seven to nine million dollars to the cash-strapped central government.

The United States-led military coalition said troops from Kabul were ready to be used if fighting spiralled out of control. "The Afghan government naturally has the lead in this matter and is trying to resolve the situation peacefully," US military spokesman Major Rick Peat said in an emailed statement.

"However, they have positioned forces in the area, and are reinforcing them, to use should peaceful means fail." The fresh clashes highlight Afghanistan's edgy security situation as the country prepares for its first-ever presidential elections on October 9. Rife insecurity has already forced the postponement of parliamentary elections until April 2005.

Despite deteriorating security, 9.9 million Afghans have registered to vote in the presidential polls, about 42 percent of them women according to UN figures released on Sunday. -AFP