Taliban militants killed eight election commission employees on Saturday night inside a district center in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, officials said.
The employees of the Independent Election Commission were stationed at the government office in Maruf district to register voters when hard-line militants launched the attack.
Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.
Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said they killed election commission employees and 57 members of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF). They also captured 11 others with five vehicles and a large cache of weapons during the attack at the district center.
However, according to Afghan government officials, the Taliban had exaggerated the casualty figures.
Qaseem Azad, a secretary of the Kandahar police said ANDSF suffered some casualties, without providing further details.
According to Reuters, the fight between the Taliban and Afghan forces has intensified even as leaders of the Taliban and US officials held peace talks to end 18 years of war in Afghanistan.
