SUSPECTED Taliban fighters attacked a government checkpoint and ambushed another group of Afghan soldiers along the main road linking the south with the capital, killing at least eight soldiers, Afghan officials said yesterday.

Afghan soldiers were waging a fierce ground battle against entrenched Taliban fighters in the south of the country after a night of heavy US bombing, a local intelligence chief said today.

US and Afghan soldiers killed about a dozen insurgents today and recaptured a key mountain pass in the south-east of the country, a local official said.