Populzai, Afghanistan ? A gun battle between government and Taliban forces that killed 47 fighters lasted for nine hours and ranged over three villages, one of the deadliest firefights since the hardline Islamic regime fell, an Afghan official said Thursday.

Forty Taliban and seven government troops died in fighting that began Wednesday after Afghan soldiers tracked Taliban who had attacked a checkpoint to a mud hut in the village of Nimakai. “This is the first time that we have killed this many Taliban,” Fazaluddin Agha, a senior government official in nearby Spinboldak, boasted Thursday. “We killed everyone. None of the Taliban escaped.”

Agha said U.S. special forces were not involved in the fighting, but helped bring some of the injured Afghan soldiers to their Kandahar base for treatment.

Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandahar Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai, said the fighting involved about 100 troops loyal to Sherzai and no soldiers from the new Afghan national army, which now numbers between 4,000 and 5,000 men. Sherzai was appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Wali Jan, a soldier who participated in the fighting, said troops began searching for the Taliban after a shooting incident Tuesday at a checkpoint.

“We were chasing these Taliban all night,” Jan said.

At about 10 a.m. Wednesday, soldiers tracked the Taliban to the six-room mud home in Nimakai. As they began to surround it, the Taliban opened fire, killing six soldiers.

The soldiers returned fire, killing one Taliban fighter, Jan said. The rest fled toward Populzai, the site of the main battle.

The mud-and-brick house in Nimakai was damaged heavily, with scores of bullet marks on the walls and several larger holes caused by rockets. Like Populzai, the town of 30 small homes was largely deserted.

The few residents on the streets — mostly old men — said the fighting was fierce.

In Populzai, six miles north of Spinboldak, not a single man was visible in the town of about 50 mud-and-brick homes.