At least 20 killed, 40 wounded in Afghan clashes

Kabul - At least 20 people were killed and 40 wounded in several clashes in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, official sources reported Sunday.

Hundreds of civilians have been forced to flee their homes after fighting erupted between two government commanders in several areas of Argo district on Thursday, they said.

"Twenty people have been killed and forty injured in Argo district in continuation of the clashes," the government-owned Anis daily reported in Kabul.

Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said fighting had not stopped until Sunday morning over a dispute between the two commanders about who would receive a tax on poppy crop, which has been cultivated in different areas of the district.

About 100 security forces have been sent from Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, to stop the fighting, authorities said, adding locals wanted the central government to step in because they do not trust provincial officials.

The fighting is the deadliest in Badakhshan since the radical Taliban regime was toppled from power in a U.S.-led military offensive in 2001, and is part of a spate of raids and clashes in which some 550 people have been killed since August.

The violence, the bloodiest since the overthrow of the Taliban, happens despite the presence of some 12,000 U.S.-led military forces hunting remnants of Taliban and their al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan. -- Reuters

Brudirect.com News