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The Taleban yesterday claimed responsibility for a truck bomb in Helmand province that killed at least five Afghan security force members.

Adding to weeks of rising violence in the country, the attack came on Sunday at a military center where at least 150 members of the Afghan army and intelligence wing are said to be stationed.

"Five Afghan security forces members were martyred and seven wounded in the truck bomb blast in Grishk district," said a spokesman for Helmand's governor, Omar Zwak.

But an intelligence officer at the National Directorate of Security and Army facility said he helped pull out at least 18 bodies. And a Taleban member claimed "dozens" were killed and wounded.

A guard at the center, Sher Ali, said he had shot and killed the driver of the truck but "suddenly a huge explosion happened and I lost consciousness."

Government forces have in the last two months suffered heavy casualties across the country.

The violence poses an immediate threat to a fragile peace deal between the United States and the Taleban, signed in February, and the Afghan military is being forced to fight an emboldened Taleban with less US support.

Truck bomb rips into Afghans