An Afghan security officer keeps watch at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan.  (Photo: Reuters)

Kabul, December 16 (RHC)-- At least 13 Afghan policemen have been killed when Taliban militants attacked two checkpoints overnight in the north of the country, officials say.  The militants stormed and briefly held the checkpoints on the outskirts of Pule Khumri, capital of northern Baghlan province, officials said Wednesday.

The dead, and five wounded, had been taken to the provincial hospital, said Ainuddin Sayad, the director of the facility.  Provincial police spokesman Ahmad Jawed Basharat confirmed the attack.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a wave of violence to rock the country in recent weeks.  

In a separate incident Wednesday, five security personnel and 17 Taliban militants were killed when government forces countered an offensive in southern Uruzgan province, another official said.

Violence has surged across several provinces of Afghanistan even as the Taliban and Afghan government engage in peace talks to end the war.