Violent clashes with Taliban insurgents in north-eastern Badakhshan province have killed at least 18 Afghan National Army soldiers, officials said Wednesday.
Another six ANA soldiers were injured in the clashes.
"Sixteen Afghan National Army soldiers have been killed in the Warduj District of the province on Wednesday," provincial spokesman Abdul Maroof Rasikh told TOLOnews.
Two other the soldiers were killed on Tuesday in clashes with the Taliban, Rasikh added.
The deaths in Warduj happened when a supply convoy of Afghan soldiers was ambushed by Taliban insurgents and most of the soldiers were held hostage, Rasikh said.
"Negotiations using tribal elders as intermediaries were carried out and six of the soldiers were released alive, but another 16 were executed. The bodies were turned over to the authorities by the same elders" he said.
Six Taliban insurgents were also killed in the clashes and eight others were injured, he added.
However, other security officials said that the security forces had launched a clearing operation in the district to clear it of insurgents.
It was one of the single deadliest attacks on government soldiers by the insurgents in recent time.
Warduj district lies along the highway leading into the Wakhan Corridor, an area of very high mountains bordered by China and Pakistan, and one that is popular with foreign trekkers.
It comes a day after the Ministry of Interior said that 11 Taliban have been killed and 19 more injured in a joint Afghan security forces operations across Afghanistan in the past 24 hours.
"In past 24 hours, Afghan National Police conducted several joint clearance operations with the cooperation of Afghan National Army, NDS and Coalition Forces to clean some of the areas from terrorists and enemies of peace and stability of Afghanistan," the MOI said in a statement on Tuesday.
The operations were done across Kandahar, Nangarhar, Laghman, Zabul, Paktiya, Uruzgan, Herat and Helmand provinces.
"During the same 24 hour period, Afghan National Police discovered and defused six different types of mines placed by enemies of Afghanistan for destructive activities in Nimroz, Kandahar, Faryab, Kunduz and Kunar provinces," it added.