KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has gained ground in a major counter-attack around a key district in central Bamyan province, which they lost a week ago, resistance officials said Sunday.
Taliban soldiers captured some areas to the east of Yakawlang after four hours of heavy overnight battle, the anti-Taliban Wahdat-i-Islami party's spokesman Ahmad Bahram said.
"They have taken the areas which were held by our men anyway. There is no change in our defense belt around Yakawlang town," he said from the embattled district.
Taliban soldiers, who have vowed to take back Yakawlang, are only 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the district that controls one of several main routes between central and northern areas, Bahram said.
The Taliban, controlling most of the country, lost Yakawlang in Bamyan, home to two giant and ancient Buddhas, in a joint attack by the minority Shiite Muslim community's Wahdat-i-Islami and Harakat-i-Islami factions on December 30th.
Bahram said the Islamic militia staged two attacks against Yakawlang's defense lines late Saturday from the provincial town of Bamyan.
"The second offensive was to retrieve their dead bodies," he said, adding that sporadic fighting continued until early Sunday morning.
"They are preparing for a bigger attack and we for a better defense," he said.
Other resistance officials said opposition forces rebuffed another Taliban attack against a besieged enclave of Dara-e-Souf north of Bamyan province.
Ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani's spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem said in their initial thrust the Taliban fighters advanced about six kilometers into the lengthy valley late Saturday.
"The fighting continued from evening till midnight and some posts changed hands," Nadeem said.
Rabbani loyalists drove attacking Taliban soldiers after heavy fighting in which five Taliban fighters were killed and two wounded, Nadeem said.
He put opposition losses at one soldier killed and one wounded.
