NEWS.com.au | US-Taliban battle, 18 dead (January 29, 2003) AT least 18 people have been killed in a major battle between US-led coalition forces and some 80 armed extremists near Afghanistan's south-eastern border with Pakistan, the US military said today.

US and Norwegian warplanes have bombarded the barren Adi Ghar mountain north of the border town of Spin Boldak since yesterday, in what US military spokesman Colonel Roger King said was the biggest US confrontation in Afghanistan for 10 months.