<span style="color: #222222;">Taliban fighters killed nearly 60 members of Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces in a spate of attacks across the country's north. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Afghan officials said this today, as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war intensify. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">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. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">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. </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Air support has been called in, he said.  About 39 Taliban fighters have been killed and 14 wounded.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Wahdat said that the fighting was still ongoing near the city and the central government was going to send more reinforcements soon. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">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.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Insurgents also raided two police checkpoints in Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province, killing 14 officers, northern Afghanistan police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In Jowzjan province hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed Khomab district centre, near Turkmenistan, killing eight security force members and seizing control of government headquarters. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">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. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">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.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">SITE Intelligence group said the local Islamic State group claimed the attack on IS's propaganda channel Amaq.</span>