Afghan chaos

KABUL (Reuter) - Frantic negotiations by Afghan government mediators failed to halt three days of fierce exchanges of rocket fire between Saudi Arabian- backed Sunnis and a rival Iranian-backed Shia faction in Kabul's western suburbs.

At least eight people have been killed and 200 injured, most of them combatants, in battles that erupted on Friday in a residential suburb already virtually reduced to rubble by numerous clashes between the two groups.