The eight militants attacked coalition troops on Wednesday in the Asadabad district of restive Kunar province, the statement said.

"The coalition responded to the attack with small arms, machinegun fire and grenades," it added.

No coalition casualties were reported, the statement said.

The US-led coalition has concentrated on anti-insurgent operations along Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan since NATO forces took command in the south of the country on July 31.

Afghanistan's hardline Taliban movement was toppled from power by the coalition in late 2001 but has stepped up an insurgency in 2006, leading to some of the worst violence in the last five years.

Meanwhile, a medical team of 15 people, mainly doctors and nurses, was kidnapped Thursday while travelling to a refugee camp in Afghanistan's troubled southern province of Kandahar, an official said.

The medical team, employed by Kandahar's refugee department, was travelling by bus to Taliban-dominated Zairai district when unidentified men hijacked their vehicle, said refugee department official Agha Jan Nazari.

"We had a 15-member doctor team travelling to that district. Unknown people have kidnapped them and we don't know anything about their fates," he said.

"The kidnappers have not contacted us so far yet."