Two policemen and 10 Taliban gunmen have been killed in clashes in southern Zabul province.

Afghan commandos have freed 47 prisoners from two Taliban jails in northern Baghlan and Kunduz provinces, officials said on Tuesday.

The Taliban's leader said Saturday the insurgents will not call a ceasefire any time soon, even as a US envoy was heading to the region for a fresh round of peace talks.

A Taliban fighter driving a Humvee packed with explosives blew himself up outside a police headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Pul-e-Khumri and other fighters opened fire on security forces there

Qatar said on Thursday it welcomed a new round of talks between the United States and Afghan Taliban being held in Doha.

Afghan civilians are for the first time being killed in greater numbers by US and pro-government forces than by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, a UN report released Wednesday revealed.

At least seven people were killed in an attack on the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul on Saturday

Taliban fighters have killed 12 security forces in the last 48 hours in clashes in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the defence ministry said Monday.

At least 19 security forces were killed in a series of Taliban attacks in the provinces Badghis and Sar-e Pul, officials said on Monday.

Afghan Vice President General Abdul Rasheed Dostum escaped three ambushes by Taliban militants on his way to his home village late on Saturday, officials said.

Nine Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban fighters stormed their checkpoints and launched a follow-up ambush in the eastern Afghanistan city of Ghazni, officials said Saturday.

Air strikes in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz killed about a dozen civilians on Saturday, local officials said, as battle intensified there and in southern Helmand province.