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Suspected Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint manned by Afghan troops, leaving eight militants dead and an Afghan guard wounded, a statement from the US-led coalition 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 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. Separately, on Friday coalition and Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan detained a suspected local Taliban leader who had reportedly been involved in a March 9 assassination attempt on a powerful tribal elder in Kandahar province, a coalition statement said.

The militant, who was not named, was arrested alongside two other men in the Kandahar province village of Maranjan, the statement said.

A roadside blast on March 9 wounded Mullah Naqib, the head of the influential Alakozai tribe in Kandahar province, the coalition said.

Naqib, who heads one of the biggest tribes in southern Afghanistan, was attacked in his personal armored vehicle in Kandahar's Arghandab district.