Fighting between about 90 suspected Taliban rebels and hundreds of Afghan soldiers and U.S.-coalition troops left seven insurgents dead and 10 wounded, while a rebel attack on a medical clinic left a doctor and six others dead, officials said Wednesday. The clash broke out on the border between Kandahar and Uruzgan, two southern provinces, on Tuesday after the rebels attacked a joint Afghan-coalition patrol, army commander Gen. Muslim Amid said. Four Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which ended with the insurgents fleeing into nearby mountains, carrying their injured, he said. Two rebels were captured. Troops pursued the rebels into the mountains and were still hunting them on Wednesday, Amid added. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara confirmed that coalition troops were involved in the fighting, but declined to comment on it, saying an assessment was still going on. He said there were no coalition casualties.
