While combat deaths are relatively low, perhaps a few hundred a month, losses among civilians are far higher. The fighting has made it more difficult to deal with the long drought. Millions of civilians are affected and it is so bad that nearly a million are moving in search of aid. Severe cold in the winter, extreme heat in the summer and a general lack of food has kept the death rate high. In the north, Taliban forces recaptured two towns from the Northern Alliance in Balkh province. The Taliban say they took sixty prisoners.