Fighting breaks out in Afghan border town - report

Fighting has broken out between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and people in the western Afghan border town of Zaranj in…

Fighting has broken out between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and people in the western Afghan border town of Zaranj in the wake of the US-led strikes, Iran's official IRNA news agency is quoted as saying.

It said, quoting Afghan sources, that some 150 Afghans had decided to capture the town from the Taliban. Zaranj, in the far southwest corner of Afghanistan lies on the frontier with Iran close to where the two countries' borders meet that of Pakistan.

A local Afghan opposition commander based in the nearby Iranian city of Zahedan, Haji Karim Barahouei, was rushing to the area, the agency said.

The region is dominated by the Baluchi ethnic group which lives in the remote arid region astride the borders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.