Reuters: Eight people have been killed in the latest clashes between factions in northern Afghanistan where British forces are heading this month to help the government tackle lawlessness.

In the latest fighting, two people were killed and one wounded on Friday night in a battle between the forces of ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and ethnic Tajik commander Ustad Atta Mohammad, a senior official in Atta's force said on Saturday.

But an official in Dostum's faction said his men were not involved in the fighting and it was an internal clash among Atta's men.

In a separate incident, four civilians and two fighters were killed in a battle between Dostum's and Atta's fighters in Mazar's Sholgara district late on Thursday, said the Atta faction official, General Abdul Saboor.