At least 11 pilgrims including seven children were killed and on Monday when their vehicle set off a landmine in southern Afghanistan, local government and health officials said.

At least twenty militants affiliated with the Taliban and ISIS were killed during separate operations conducted in southern Kandahar and eastern Nangarhar provinces.

A US army general was among those injured in a Taliban attack on top US and Afghan security chiefs inside a highly secure compound last week in Kandahar province, a military spokesman confirmed.

At least 13 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with a truck parked on a road in southern Afghanistan on Saturday and overturned, officials said.

A Taliban suicide bomber killed five civilians and wounded dozens of others, mainly children, when he detonated a car filled with explosives at a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan Wednesday.

A US soldier has been killed in Afghanistan in an operation targeting Islamic State group insurgents, commanders said on Thursday, in the latest blow to American forces in the war-torn nation.

Afghan police on Sunday launched a search and rescue operation two days after at least 70 villagers were kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

Three highway policemen were killed and eight army soldiers were kidnapped by Taliban militants in two separate incidents during the last 24 hours, according to Afghan officials on Saturday.

A suicide car bomber killed 18 people in the eastern Afghan city of Khost on Saturday, the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the interior ministry said.

At least 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when militants attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, in the latest attack on Western-backed forces.

Pakistan and Afghanistan plan to use Google Maps to help settle a border dispute that led to deadly clashes last week, officials from both sides said on Monday.

Pakistan's military on Sunday said it had killed more than 50 Afghan soldiers in a clash on a major border crossing two days earlier, a claim quickly rejected by Kabul.