KABUL, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Three policemen have been injured as infighting broke out in northwest Afghanistan's Faryab province, sources said Monday.

"Three policemen were wounded as supporters of a local commander Gul Mohammad opened fire on police in Faizabad area of Shirin Tagab district last night," a former army officer, Rahmatullah, told Xinhua over telephone.

Gul Mohammad, who challenges General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former strongman of northern Afghanistan and present chief of staff of the country's armed forces, was preparing to attack rival commanders but police foiled it, according to the source.

Mohammad's supporters, the source added, opened fire on police and injured three. In the meantime, locals in the area put the number of wounded persons to five. However, deputy governor of Faryab Syed Ahmad Syed denied the outbreak of infighting in Shirin Tagab but confirmed police were targeted in the area.

We succeeded to avert infighting in Shirin Tagab by deploying police in the region," Syed told Xinhua. However, he confirmed that Gul Mohammad's supporters fired on police but caused no injury.

Rivalry and clashes between Gul Mohammad's family and General Dostum, which dated back to last decade, has so far claimed hundreds of lives in northern provinces of the war-weary nation.