Taliban fighters killed nearly 60 members of Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces in a spate of attacks across the country’s north.

Afghan officials said this today, as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war intensify.

Heavy fighting overnight in four provinces followed a wave of violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has left hundreds of civilians, police and soldiers dead.

At least 17 security forces have been killed near Sar-e-Pul city after militants seized a checkpoint in Sayyad district and burned it to the ground, provincial governor Zahir Wahdat told journalists today.
Air support has been called in, he said.  About 39 Taliban fighters have been killed and 14 wounded.

Wahdat said that the fighting was still ongoing near the city and the central government was going to send more reinforcements soon.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan’s north, the Taliban’s elite Red unit attacked several police posts in Kunduz, killing at least 19 officers and wounding around 20, Dasht-e-Archi district chief Nasruddin Saadi told AFP.

Insurgents also raided two police checkpoints in Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province, killing 14 officers, northern Afghanistan police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said.

In Jowzjan province hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed Khomab district centre, near Turkmenistan, killing eight security force members and seizing control of government headquarters.

The increased violence comes as Afghan and international players ratchet up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001.

On Sunday a suicide bomber blew himself up in Kabul during commemorations for famed resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 20.

SITE Intelligence group said the local Islamic State group claimed the attack on IS’s propaganda channel Amaq.