Wednesday February 14 6:13 AM ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement lost the key central town of Bamiyan to opponents overnight and launched a counter-offensive Wednesday to retake it, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported.

Heavy fighting raged after the Taliban counter-offensive began at about noon, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Taliban sources as saying.

``Our forces are in a good position and we hope to recapture the town very soon,'' it quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying.

The town sits on the Taliban's land route to northern Afghanistan. The main highway from the capital Kabul to the north is already blocked by opposition forces. Earlier AIP said a Taliban official in Kabul confirmed an opposition report of the capture of Bamiyan, capital of the province of the same name, saying ``we have vacated Bamiyan city as part of military strategy.''

-- Reuters (ben@timedesk.net), March 06, 2001