New fighting near Kabul

The taliban launch an attack north of Kabul

There has been fierce fighting north of Kabul as the ruling Taleban militia used heavy tanks and jets in an attempt to bring enemy positions under its control.

An opposition frontline commander, Besmellah Khan, said Taleban fighters launched an attack at dawn on Sunday.

Opposition spokesman Abdullah conceded that forces loyal to anti-Taleban commander Ahmad Shah Masood lost a stretch of ground on the so-called Old Road.

However he said that Taleban gains were reversed in an afternoon counter-attack on the road to Charikar, one of the few provincial capitals still held by Ahmad Shah Masood.

"The front lines are the same as before the fighting.

"They have been pushed out from the areas they had taken earlier," Abdullah said, adding six anti-Taleban fighters were killed and another 15 wounded in Sunday's battle.

He also claimed 12 civilians were wounded in Charikar in Taleban jet attacks, and said 14 Taleban tanks and 18 other military vehicles were destroyed in the fighting.

The Taleban's official Radio Voice of Shariah on Sunday evening claimed the opposition initiated the fighting.

"The Islamic Emirate [Taleban] army repulsed the opposition's repeated attacks on the Old Road, inflicting heavy human and material losses on the enemy," it said.