U.S. Marines tracked down a band of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and sparked a battle that left about 12 rebels and two American troops dead, the U.S. military said Monday, in the latest sign of a revived Taliban-led insurgency. The military said warplanes also joined the clash with about 25 insurgents on Sunday evening in Laghman, a province of an eastern opium-producing region where U.S. forces have regularly fought with militants. Acting on intelligence about the rebels' whereabouts, U.S. Marines "located the insurgents and an engagement ensued," a brief statement from the U.S. military said. "Two U.S. Marines were killed," The Associated Press reported. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of next-of-kin. U.S. spokesman Col. James Yonts said "about a dozen" rebels were killed, but that troops were still checking the battlefield and the figure could change. He made no mention of any injuries on either side.
