Tribal fighters in Afghanistan have said they captured a key district north of the Taliban's last stronghold of Kandahar. Ahmad Karzai, brother and spokesman for ethnic Pashtun royalist Hamid Karzai, said his brother's Popalzai tribal fighters had captured the district of Shahwali Kot overnight, meeting little resistance.
He said there had been little or no resistance from Taliban fighters. The Taliban denied the area had fallen.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said Karzai's tribesmen had attacked Taliban positions at Shahwali Kot, about 30 km (19 miles) north of Kandahar. It quoted Taliban sources as saying the assault had been repelled, with dozens of tribal fighters wounded and two captured, along with six vehicles.
There was no independent account of the fighting. US bombers have continued to attack Kandahar and eastern Afghanistan.
