The Taliban intensified attacks in a district heavily populated by minority Hazaras Sunday, as US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad returned to the region as part of efforts to convince the group to end the 17-year war.

The Taliban will send representatives to multilateral talks in Russia on war-torn Afghanistan this month, the militant group said Tuesday, as the international community ratchets up efforts to end the 17-year conflict.

Afghans voted on Saturday in parliamentary elections overshadowed by chaotic organisation, allegations of corruption and violence that has forced a postponement of the vote in the strategic southern province of Kandahar.

At least 18 soldiers were killed in Taliban raids on two military posts in western Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, as militants step up attacks ahead of parliamentary elections.

The Taliban on Monday vowed to target government security forces in upcoming parliamentary elections, as US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Afghan leaders to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Senior US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has arrived in Kabul for talks with Afghan leaders, an official said Sunday, in his first trip to the Afghan capital since being appointed to lead peace efforts with the Taliban.

At least 10 policemen were killed in clashes with Taliban fighters in the central Afghan province of Wardak, officials said on Sunday, amid fighting to wrest control of arterial highways a day after Taliban fighters blew up bridges.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters destroyed bridges near the central city of Ghazni on Saturday, closing the main highway between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan, officials said.

At least 38 Afghan security personnel and civilians have been killed in night-time attacks across four Afghan provinces, officials said on Friday, amid a spike in Taliban attacks at military checkpoints.

Taliban killed nearly 60 members of Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces in a spate of attacks across the country's north, officials said Monday, as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war intensify.

An Afghan policeman shot dead at least eight fellow officers, burned their bodies and took their weapons to join Taliban militants, provincial officials said on Thursday, adding to the toll from dozens of insider attacks in this year alone.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant Haqqani network, one of the most powerful and feared groups in the Afghan insurgency, has died after a long illness, the Taliban said on Tuesday.