GARDEZ, Jan 30: Heavy fighting erupted on Wednesday in this eastern Afghan town as rival warlords battled for control of Paktia province, witnesses and residents said.

US warplanes were seen circling overhead as mortar, rocket and small arms fire rocked the town of some 50,000 people and hundreds of panicked residents fled on foot and in trucks.

The fighting appeared to be concentrated on the governor’s mansion, where flashes of mortar explosions and flames lit up the sky as night fell.

After dark, the mortar fire was replaced by the incessant staccato of anti-aircraft fire while the flash of exploding rockets lit up the town.

Fleeing residents said men loyal to rival ethnic Pakhtoon warlords Padsha Khan and Saifullah began fighting around midday.

Khan was appointed recently to take up the governorship of Paktia province, bordering Pakistan, by Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai.

But Saifullah had already taken control of Gardez, around 100 kilometres south of Kabul, following the withdrawal of the Taliban.

Saifullah said his forces had captured most of the town apart from the police headquarters and Balai Haisar, a fort set on a hillock in the town centre.

He said he had sent 800 fighters to Gardez armed with machineguns, Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers and BM-12 multiple rocket launchers.

“When we entered the town today we did not expect to fight,” Padshah Khan said.

“But they began firing at us with mortars and RPGs (rocket propelled grenades),” he said.

He said some of his fighters had been killed and injured but he could not say how many.

He claimed members of the Al Qaeda network and of the Taliban had joined forces with Saifullah. “We are fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” Khan said.—AFP