ISLAMABAD, June 1: At least 16 people were killed and many others wounded as factional fighting erupted between tribesmen and supporters of a police chief in the southwestern Afghan province of Nimroz, a report said Saturday.

The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said tribesmen from the Barakzai clan used rocket launchers and heavy machine-guns in the clash in the provincial capital Zaranj overnight.

The AIP said the exact cause of the fighting was not immediately known but quoted sources as saying that for the past few months tensions had been simmering between local police chief Abdul Qudoos and the Barakzai tribe.

The AIP cited residents as saying that a rocket attack on the residence of a Barakzai elder, believed to be engineered by Qudoos, triggered the gunbattle.

Zaranj city is shut and clashes are continuing, it said, adding that the bodies of three Afghans whose families reside in the Iranian border town of Zahedan were shifted there for burial. —AFP