Taliban fighters killed 18 soldiers -- including some who were beheaded -- after storming an Afghan army outpost in the remote mountainous northeast in a major attack before the spring fighting season, officials said Monday.

Taliban fighters killed 18 soldiers -- including some who were beheaded -- after storming an Afghan army outpost in the remote mountainous northeast in a major attack before the spring fighting season, officials said Monday.

"Eighteen Afghan soldiers were martyred and eight of them were beheaded" on Friday, Badakhshan provincial spokesman Naweed Frotan told AFP, adding that nearly a dozen more soldiers were still missing.