Kabul airport seized

The Afghan President's forces won control of the badly damaged airport in the capital, Kabul, and appeared to strengthen their positions in several parts of the city as fighting raged for a fifth day, AP reports from Kabul.

The number of wounded has reached 2,500 in the bloodbath that erupted on 1 January between President Burhanuddin Rabbani's faction and rival Islamic groups. Eighty people have been confirmed dead, but the actual toll is probably in the hundreds, according to estimates by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other sources.