Kabul (AP): Eight Taliban fighters are dead after battling U.S. coalition troops in southern Afghanistan.

The coalition says two of its troops and three Afghan policemen were also wounded during Monday's clash in the southern province of Uruzgan. They were undergoing medical treatment and were in stable condition.

The troops were on patrol when Taliban fighters attacked them with small arms fire and heavy machine-guns.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, where thousands of new American troops will join the fight this year.

President Barack Obama hopes the new troops can turn the tide of the Taliban successes in the last three years.