Most of the deaths were part of a weekend of bloodshed, with two Taliban suicide blasts killing nearly 20 people, including three German soldiers, and military strikes in the east said to have killed more than 100 insurgents.

The bodies of 11 of the policemen were recovered on Sunday, a day after they were killed by Taliban fighters in the southern province of Helmand, a police commander told AFP on condition of anonymity.

They were moved to Kabul, where they had come from, the commander said.

News of the killings was brought by a sole surviving policeman who made it to the town of Gereshk a day after the bloody incident, the official added.

The Taliban said it was responsible.

Three more policemen, including a district counter-criminal chief, were killed in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Monday by a remotely controlled bomb similar to those regularly used by Taliban, a police spokesman said.

"Seven other policemen were injured. It was the work of the Taliban," provincial police spokesman Abdul Ghafoor told AFP.

The US-led coalition said meanwhile soldiers fought militants for 14 hours Sunday in Helmand's district of Sangin, where the extremist militia's top commander Mullah Dadullah was found dead 10 days ago.

There were "several confirmed enemy deaths," the coalition said in a statement.

The Afghan defence ministry said separately "during this operation 25 of our enemies were killed." They included a Taliban group commander, it said.