Spinboldak, Afghanistan ? Two dozen U.S. special forces troops and hundreds of their Afghan allies swooped in on a border village Wednesday to drive out resurgent Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.

Under fierce attack, the Taliban fled into nearby mountains where they were pummeled by U.S. aircraft.

It was the latest assault on rebel forces, who are regrouping after a U.S. coalition drove them from power 18 months ago.

At least eight Afghan soldiers and as many Taliban fighters were wounded. Six Taliban were captured and arrested, but another 60 were entrenched in the rugged Tor Ghar mountain range.

Air support arrived from Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, about six hours after the battle started.

By then, 45 special forces soldiers and about 250 Afghan soldiers drove the Taliban into the mountains from the village of Sikai Lashki, 25 miles north of Spinboldak, the gateway to Afghanistan on the Pakistani border.

“We’re still fighting. Our soldiers are hitting them and the American soldiers with us are calling in the air strikes,” Khan Mohammed, the 2nd Corps commander in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, said as night fell over the stark landscape.

The U.S. military in Bagram, north of the capital, Kabul, said in a statement that U.S. servicemen “observing” the operation called in air support.

In the first assault, two A-10 fighter jets fired seven white phosphorous rockets and 520 30 mm rounds. Two Apache helicopters followed, firing 130 30 mm rounds and 67 other rockets, it said.

Evidence is mounting in the southern regions of Afghanistan that the Taliban is reorganizing and has found an ally in rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, labeled a terrorist and hunted by U.S. troops.

“Six months ago their attacks were sporadic. But today there is a new organization to the Taliban,” Mohammed said at the sprawling compound where Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar once lived.

“They have found places and opened fronts. They are better organized and are slowly, slowly getting larger and better organized.”

In the last two weeks in southern Afghanistan, a Red Cross worker was waylaid and murdered, and two U.S. servicemen were killed in an ambush on their convoy.

The Taliban’s reorganization has provincial commanders overseeing operations. In the south and southeast, the reorganization and military operations are being managed by former Interior Minister Abdul Razzak, former Kandahar corps commander Mohammed Usmani and key commanders Mohammed Dadullah and Mullah Brather.