International peacekeepers clashed with a 30-strong group of armed men in Kabul and captured some wearing the new Afghan police uniform, a spokesman for multi-national force said today.
"About 30 gunmen and a British contingent of the peacekeeping force were involved," said a spokesman for the International Assistance Security (ISAF).
He said it was not clear if the men in police uniforms were policemen or if they were robbers in disguise. Numerous gangs of robbers have plagued the southwest Kabul area recently, many of them unemployed Northern Alliance fighters who helped drive the Taliban from power late last year.
ISAF patrols responded after about 10 rounds were fired at two different locations. Reinforcements were sent help the patrols and seven men were arrested. The other gunmen escaped in a vehicle. The arrested men have been handed over to Afghan Interior Ministry for questioning.
Fighting erupted earlier between the forces of two rival commanders in Afghanistan's Wardak province, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
Nine people were killed and 12 wounded as the forces of interim government commander Mr Muzaffaruddin and Mr Ghulam Rohani Nangali fought around Maidan Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, 45 km west of Kabul, AIP said.
The fighting underlined the difficulties facing the interim government of Mr Hamid Karzai, appointed in December, in uniting an ethnically divided country which has been at war for more than two decades.
Rockets and heavy artillery were used in overnight fighting and, in addition to the known dead and wounded, 18 Nangali fighters were missing, the news agency said.
It said Mr Nangali controlled a large area of the province but did not say what sparked the fighting, the latest clash in a war-battered country awash with arms and warlords.
PAand