Suspected Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint manned by Afghan troops, leaving eight militants and five Afghan troops dead, officials said on Saturday. Afghan troops had been manning a checkpoint in the southern province of Uruzgan when a large group of militants attacked their compound on Thursday, the statement from the US-led coalition said. “Afghan security guards aggressively fought off the attacking Taliban force in a pitched battle, killing eight Taliban fighters during a six-hour fire fight,” it said. The incident could not be independently verified due to the area’s remoteness. Five Afghan troops were killed and one was wounded in the clash, NATO’s International Security Assistance force said in a statement. Separately, coalition and Afghan troops on Friday detained a suspected local Taliban leader who was reportedly involved in an assassination attempt on a powerful tribal elder in Kandahar province on March 9, a coalition statement said. The militant, who was not named, was arrested alongside two other men in the southern village of Maranjan, in Kandahar province, the statement said.