Bloody clashes between competing factions of Afghanistan’s insurgency left up to 79 people dead, officials said today, including 19 civilians in a lawless part of the country beyond the reach of government or Nato forces.

Fighting in a remote stretch of Baghlan province, in northern Afghanistan, broke out on Saturday, local police said, and continued through the weekend — although it was not clear what triggered the violence.

Most of the dead were fighters aligned with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord once bankrolled by America during the anti-Russian resistance, the provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi said.

Hekmatyar’s men — part of the Hezb-i Islami group — clashed with Taleban fighters, part of the main armed opposition group led by the remnants of the hardline regime ousted during the US-led 2001 invasion. Around 20 of the dead were Taleban, although government sources said that they didn’t have accurate casualty figures because they had been unable to visit the area.

Both groups are opposed to the Afghan Government and the presence of foreign forces, although they are both being courted by President Hamid Karzai for upcoming peace talks.

Taleban spokesmen routinely claim that there is no difference between the groups. In reality, Hekmatyar’s men hold sway in the area immediately east of Kabul. The Taleban are traditionally strongest in Kandahar and the south. Baghlan is is neither groups' heartland.

Hekmatyar served briefly as Afghanistan’s prime minister, he fought the Northern Alliance during Afghanistan’s civil war and he sided with the Taleban as they swept to power in the late 1990s.

He is widely tipped as the insurgent leader most amenable to negotiations. The political leader of his old party, Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal, was recently appointed to President Hamid Karzai’s Cabinet. He denies any links to Hekmatyar.