KABUL, Nov 2: At least seven people including two civilians were killed in fighting between rival militias in Afghanistan’s northern Saripul province, officials said on Sunday.

Fighting between the Jamiat militia, made up of ethnic Tajik fighters, and the Jumbish militia of ethnic Uzbeks started in Kohistanat district of Saripul province 320 kilometers north of Kabul on Saturday afternoon.

The violence was continuing on Sunday morning, a local Jamiat commander told AFP in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“Five militia members and two civilians died in the fighting. The civilians were killed by a rocket hitting their house,” said General Abdul Sabor, the spokesman for Jamiat faction.

The dead were a woman and a child, Sabor said.

“The fighting started when Jumbish fighters under the

command of Kamal Khan attacked Jamiat positions and they were pushed back,” said Jamiat commander Malim Abdul Aziz.

“The rival factions used heavy weapons, tanks and rockets in the fighting,” Aziz told AFP.

The two rival factions regularly fight each other over the control of the drug trafficking route from central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan, Ghor and Badghis provinces.—AFP