It has been reported that the Taliban has hanged three supporters of Afghan royalist envoy Hamid Karzai after they were caught in a clash with Taliban fighters.
The three were hanged yesterday in Deharwad district of Uruzgan province where Karzai and his followers were surprised by Taliban militia, it was reported.
The reports said the whereabouts of Karzai and the rest of his supporters was unknown.
It has also been reported that eighty Taliban soldiers were killed in overnight fighting when opposition forces attacked their positions, sixty kilometers southwest of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, opposition sources said today.
The attack took place in the Balkh province where the opposition Northern Alliance claimed to have taken control of the Taliban-held district of Aq-Kupruk.
Aq-Kupruk was taken after a three-hour battle which started at midnight, Qari Qudratullah, a spokesman for Northern Alliance commander Atta Mohammad, said.
Earlier the Northern Alliance said it had taken a district from the Taliban in northern Afghanistan after 800 Taliban fighters changed sides.
Qari Qudratullah, a spokesman for commander Atta Mohammad, said Aq-Kupruk district, 70 kilometers south of the key city of Mazar-i-Sharif was taken after an three hour battle which started at midnight.
A Taliban spokesman in Kabul said there had been fighting in the region but refused to give other details.
AFP