The Afghan Taliban stormed a military base in the south of the country killing at least 43 troops on Thursday, the Defence Ministry said, with the militants putting the toll at at least 60.

Of 60 soldiers manning the base in the province of Kandahar, 43 were killed, nine were wounded and six were missing after the militants attacked in the middle of the night, the ministry said in a statement.

At least ten Taliban were also reported killed.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a local spokesman for the militant group, said the attack began with a suicide car bomb followed by an assault that overran the base.

The attack killed at least 60 Afghan soldiers and wounded many more, he said.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency for a decade and a half in an attempt to overthrow the Western-backed government in Kabul and reestablish a fundamentalist Islamic regime.