Reported fighting between the Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami fighters

“Since Sunday 120 fighters including 70 armed men from Hizb-e-Islami have joined [the] government,” a police spokesman in Baghlan told Xinhua. Mamor Malang, a local commander of the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, or HIG, was among those who surrendered to the government. More HIG fighters are expected to join the government in the coming days.

The fighting began on Saturday as a dispute between the local HIG units and Taliban forces in several villages in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district came to a head. The two forces, which are normally allied against Afghan and Coalition forces, battled over control of the region and the ability to collect taxes there. Twenty-five fighters were reported killed in the first day of the fighting, which ultimately ended on Sunday.

It is not clear if this split is localized to the district or portends a wider problem in the North; Taliban and HIG leaders have not commented on the fighting.

…Hekmatyar has since reached out to the Afghan government to conduct negotiations to end the fighting. His son is reported to have attended negotiations in the Maldives earlier this year. Also, last month Hekmatyar released terms for an end to the fighting. The 15-point plan calls for Coalition forces to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2010.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/03/taliban_hig_infighti.php#ixzz0hdaljpBt