Daylong battle near Taliban-controlled town turns into bloody mess

Daylong battle near Taliban-controlled town turns into bloody mess

60 Taliban fighters and one soldier from the U.S.-led coalition were killed in a battle near a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing belt.

Several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol near the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S.-led coalition said. Taliban reinforcements flowed in from Musa Qala all day, it said.

The coalition returned artillery fire and called in fighter aircraft, killing more than 60 of the Taliban fighters, the coalition said. One coalition soldier was killed and four wounded.