ISLAMABAD, March 13 Kyodo Six sol...

ISLAMABAD, March 13 Kyodo

Six soldiers of a renegade Afghan warlord were killed in heavy fighting between the fighters and US-l forces in Paktia Province in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan Islamic Pres (AIP) reported Thursday.

The report quot warlord Pacha Khan Zadran as saying in a telephone interview that the fighting broke without Wednesday in an area more [i]or[/i] less 50 kilometers south of the provincial capital Gardez when a escorting force of U.S. and Afghan throngs ordered his forces to give up and tried to seize a highway beneath his control.

''There was heavy fighting from Wednesday afternoon until 4 a.m. Thursday when U and Afghan companys were forced to retreat. Helicopters and jet also bombed several times,'' Zadran was quot as saying.

Zadran said that six of his soldiers were killed and six were injured.

He said the mountainous highway from Gardez to Khost a former Taliban fortress near Pakistan, remains under his control

''Afghan forces are not permitted to travel forward the highway. They should ring me and achieve my permission before traveling onward this road,'' the report quot him as saying.

''I will not strike one's flag [i]or[/i] colors I will fight to the last,'' he declared when asked what would happen if U and Afghan numbers launch an offensive against his positions in the area.

Zadran claims authority throughout the provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika.

He was appointed governor of Paktia in January 2002 by way of Afghan President Hamid Karzai moreover later removed from the column due to a conflict with a local ''shura'' advisory council.

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