MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Sept 16: At least eight people were killed on Monday when fighting erupted between forces loyal to rival warlords in northern Afghanistan.

The clashes in the Qalaye Shahr area of Sar-i-Pul province and the Chamtal district of the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif involved fighters loyal to Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Tajik rival, Ustad Atta Mohammad, travellers returning from the areas said.

Five unidentified people were killed and 11 wounded in Qalaye Shahr and three more were killed in Chamtal, they said.

General Abdul Saboor, a commander of Atta’s Jamiat-i-Islami, confirmed there had been fighting between the factions, which have clashed several times in the past four months.

He said local authorities had forced an end to the fighting in Chamtal, about 10kms west of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city not far from the border with Uzbekistan, but intense fighting was continuing in Qalaye Shahr.

He said some 200 local fighters from both factions had been sent from Mazar to Qalaye Shahr to try to end the conflict.—Reuters