MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Oct 8: Up to 50 militiamen were killed or wounded in fighting between rival militias in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, faction officials said.

General Atta Mohammad, leader of the mainly ethnic Tajik Jamiat faction, said 50 of his men were wounded or killed in fighting with rival militiamen from the mainly Uzbek Junbish group, headed by Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rashid Dostum.

The fighting erupted early in the morning in and around the town of Fayzabad, halfway between the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and Dostum’s stronghold of Sheberghan, 120kms to the west, Jamiat and Junbish officials said.

Junbish official Sayed Nurullah, a deputy of Dostum, said the fighting started after Jamiat militiamen attacked a Junbish commander travelling towards Mazar-i-Sharif and was still continuing with heavy and light weapons.

Nurullah said three Junbish men were killed and four injured in the initial attack.

Tensions between the rival militias have been growing since the weekend when two Junbish commanders were allegedly kidnapped by Jamiat forces in Kodibark, 20kms west of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Junbish had sent reinforcements to Fayzabad, Atta Mohammad and Nurullah said.

News of the fighting prompted shopkeepers in Mazar-i-Sharif to down shutters as locals feared the clashes would spread to the city, which remained quiet, witnesses said.

Atta Mohammad sent tanks through Mazar-i-Sharif to head west towards the fighting at Fayzabad, city police commander General Isa Iftikhary and witnesses said.

Some tanks would remain in Mazar-i-Sharif to defend the city against any possible Junbish attacks, Iftikhary said.

The city has previously suffered sporadic clashes between the militias.

Former communist general Dostum and his rival, Atta Mohammad, have been vying for control of northern Afghanistan along with a third ethnic Hazara militia, Hezb-i-Wahdat.—AFP