Taliban kill 30 locals in northern province

"They have been safely evacuated to Sar-e Pul city, but there are still an unknown number of people being kept hostage there", he said.

According to the government officials, due to a limited number of forces, who are struggling to defend the most urgent areas, many parts of the country are left unprotected from the insurgents.

The radical Islamists killed more than 50 men, women and children in the Sayad district of the northern Sar-e-Pul province, and the death toll could rise further.

"It was a joint operation by Daesh (IS) and Taliban fighters".

Although the Taliban and Islamic State are usually enemies, the allegiance of their forces is sometimes fluid, with fighters from both groups sometimes changing sides or cooperating with militants from other groups.

Fighting has intensified across Afghanistan in recent months.

The Al-Qaeda militant group worked with the Taliban and made Afghanistan its home base before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The majority of those killed were Shiites.

Afghan defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP that 34 civilians were known to have been killed.

Verifying information from poor, mountainous areas of Afghanistan made inaccessible by fighting and with patchy communications is hard, and AFP was not able to access the village.

But Governor Mohammad Zaher Wahdat told Afghan channel Tolo News they had not been able to recover the bodies.

"Two hundred and thirty-five hostages have been released".

The Taliban denied killing civilians, saying that their fighters had killed 28 members of a government-supported militia in the area, and denied working with IS.

The battle began on Thursday when a checkpoint manned by local police was attacked.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, confirmed to AFP that it had captured Mirzawalang village but said it had done so alone. It also denied allegations the insurgents killed civilians.