Taliban militants killed 32 friends and relatives of an influential lawmaker in southern Afghanistan and 10 others are missing, the legislator said.

U.S soldiers patrol the streets of Kabul. Taliban militants killed 32 friends and relatives of an influential lawmaker in southern Afghanistan and 10 others are missing. [AFP]

MP Dad Mohammad Khan told AFP that 27 of the men had been killed in Helmand province when they had gone to the scene of an earlier attack in which five others were shot dead.

"Yesterday morning in Taliban attacks, 32 of my relatives and friends were killed," said Khan, the influential former intelligence chief of the province.

"Ten relatives of mine are still missing and five are wounded," he said.

One of the five men killed in the earlier ambush was a brother of Khan named Juma Gull, a former governor of Helmand's Sangin district.

The group had been returning from a visit to Ghorak district in neighbouring Kandahar province. "Taliban attacked their vehicle and killed my brother, my son and three other people," Khan said.

"On hearing the news my other brother Gull Mohammad and other relatives rushed to the site of the incident. They were ambushed by Taliban again. Some of them were killed at the site, and some were killed in different locations.

"Today we have recovered 32 bodies of my family members, relatives and friends."

The incident was confirmed by deputy provincial governor, Mullah Amir Akhund.

"A total of 30 people were killed in the two attacks in Sangin district yesterday, which includes two brothers of MP Dad Mohammad, one of his sons and the rest are mostly his relatives," he said.

"His other son and three more are wounded."

A self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman said the movement was responsible for the attacks.

"After the attack in which five people were killed, they started fighting Taliban. More than 30 of them were killed and a number were wounded," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP.

Helmand is among several provinces in the south and east that have been hard-hit by an insurgency launched by the Taliban movement after it was removed from power in late 2001 by a US-led coalition.

It also produces most of Afghanistan's opium crop, which makes up about 90 percent of the heroin and opium used in Europe.

Some experts have said there is a link between the opium farmers and rebels, who have been said to offer to protect opium poppy fields from government eradication attempts.

Around 3,300 British troops are being deployed to Helmand province as part of a US-led coalition force that is fighting the Taliban and their allies.

British commanders told reporters in the capital Kabul Sunday that their troops were enjoying success in the region after pushing faster than expected into rebel territory, including areas in the north that have been without government control for three decades.

Coalition and Afghan troops have also stepped up their efforts against the rebels, launching last month a new campaign called Operation Mountain Thrust.

The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 in a US-led offensive after they failed to hand over sama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.