KABUL, JAN 8: The Afghan Opposition confirmed on Monday it had lost the strategic town of Yakawlang in the central province of Bamiyan to the Taliban after heavy fighting.``It is gone after very intense fighting. Our forces have retreated to the West of Yakawlang,'' said Sayed Perviz, an Opposition official.Yakawlang lies on a main road linking the South of the country to the North and had been in Taliban hands for two years until they were forced out on December 30. Taliban officials said on Sunday they had recaptured the town that day.``They (Opposition) could not resist in the face of our operation and fled. It is fully under our control,'' Taliban's Information Minister, Qudratullah Jamal told Reuters in Kabul.The Taliban largely control the country, but face some pockets of resistance in central and north-eastern Afghanistan where sporadic fighting continues despite a frigid winter.Sources said fighting between the Taleban and the opposition continued for a second day on Monday near Daraye Souf in the northern province of Samangan where the Opposition holds a besieged enclave.Military commander Ahmed Shah Masood remains a formidable obstacle to the Taleban gaining complete control of war-ravaged Afghanistan.
