KABUL, Sept 25: Suspected Taliban militants launched a string of attacks on security posts in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing nine soldiers, an official said.

The attacks came the same day as the head of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan warned that the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies were stepping up plans to disrupt a landmark presidential election on Oct. 9.

Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, said an unspecified number of gunmen launched raids on three security posts along a road between Girishk in the southern Helmand province and Delawar in the western province of Farah.

Three soldiers were killed in the first attack, six in the second and there were no casualties in the third.

A Taliban spokesman said militia guerillas had carried out the attacks and that 15 government soldiers had been killed and two captured.

In Kabul, the US military's commander in Afghanistan said coalition forces had intelligence reports saying Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters were stepping up plans to disrupt the election.

"For all terrorists in the region ... disrupting the election is part of their agenda," Lt-Gen David Barno told a news conference in Kabul. Mr Barno said the insurgency was being waged by a "tiny minority", and that the rest of the world owed it to Afghanistan to stand by them.

"Our challenge ... is to rise up to the level of resolve shown daily here by our hosts, the people of Afghanistan," he said.-Reuters