DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- Troops loyal to the deposed president of Tajikistan, Rakhmon Nabiyev, have captured a strategically vital bridge 70 kilometers south of Dushanbe and appear to be advancing towards the capital.


Members of Nabiyev's Kulyabi clan burst out of Kurgan-Tyube, the scene of bloody fighting over the past 45 days, capturing the bridge across the river Vakhsh at the end of last week.


Hundreds of people have died and tens of thousands have been forced to flee the Kurgan-Tyube area in a clan war that shows no signs of ending.


Refugees streaming up through the hills to Dushanbe from the south reported heavy fighting Saturday around the cotton town of Uyali, 5 kilometers north of the Vakhsh bridge, indicating that the Kulyabi fighters were advancing along the road to Dushanbe.


No troops loyal to the new government, a coalition of Democrats and Moslems, now remain in Kurgan-Tyube, according to a senior diplomat in Dushanbe.


Pro-government irregulars who had advanced deeper into the river basin of Kurgan-Tyube appear now to have been cut off. They have retreated southward toward Kolkhozabab where fierce fighting is reported to be taking place.


Ed Warner, a U. S. journalist who visited the village of Kyzlkala, at the north end of the Vakhsh bridge, said that the Kulyabis were holding it with two heavy tanks and an armored personnel carrier.


"One of the tanks was flying a Soviet flag, the other a Tajik flag", he said.


A Kulyabi soldier told Warner that, "We will not rest until we have reinstated the legal government that was overthrown by force".


Nabiyev was a Communist of the old school, but was freely elected last November.


There appears to be very little in the way of government weaponry to stop the Kulyabis.


Between the river and Dushanbe, no government armor is visible while troops are often armed with nothing but hunting rides or even knives.


The Russian Army has declared itself in control of the road to Dushanbe. Forty kilometers from the bridge, a detachment of three heavy Russian Army tanks and one light infantry tank have taken up position at a strategic hill pass 20 kilometers south of Dushanbe.


When the car carrying this reporter was stopped, a Russian soldier cocked his Kalashnikov rifle and with his finger on the trigger, asked us to leave.


But the soldiers made no attempt to stop countless trucks, cars and tractors packed with refugees fleeing north.


Russian military officials were not available for comment on whether the troops stationed in the pass intended to defend it.


In Dushanbe, the atmosphere has been tense over the last few days following an attempt last week by pro-government gunmen to take Russian school children hostage. Government officials who overthrew Nabiyev accused Russia of arming the Kulyabis with light and heavy weapons.


"The Russian Army must hold onto its weapons", demanded Shodmon Yussef, head of the Democratic Party, the second strongest party in the coalition government. "It must not give its weapons to anybody or it will have to pay for everything it does".