KABUL: US-led coalition airstrikes killed nearly a dozen Islamist Taleban fighters in the southern province of Zabul overnight, the US military said on Wednesday, as the bloodiest period since the militants' 2001 ouster grinds on.

Afghan and US-led coalition troops called in air support after detecting a group of more than 20 Taleban preparing to ambush them near a village in the Arghandab district of the province on Tuesday, it added.

"The Afghan National Army called in coalition close-air support to strike the insurgents before they could launch their attempted ambush," the US military said in a statement.

"The coalition aircraft used a precision-guided munitions and machine-gun fire to eliminate the insurgent threat."

"Nearly a dozen Taleban fighters were killed during the brief engagement," it added, saying more than 245 Taleban had been killed in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Zabul since late August.

There were no independent accounts of how many people were killed or what happened. The Taleban were not immediately available for comment.

The fighting came after a suicide bomber rammed a US security firm convoy in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, killing two local staff and wounding eight other people.

The US-led military says coalition forces have killed hundreds of Taleban militants in a series of confrontations in recent weeks. The Taleban have admitted some losses, but say Afghan and foreign troops vastly exaggerate enemy death tolls.

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