KABUL, Afghanistan >> A joint NATO-Afghan assault has pushed Taliban fighters back after they seized control of half of a remote district in the mountainous east.

Nuristan provincial governor, Jamaludin Badar, says the counter-attack Wednesday expelled the Taliban from a government building in Duab district just hours after the militants seized it.

Badar says Taliban fighters have fled with their heavy weaponry into the surrounding mountains, with NATO and Afghan forces in pursuit.

NATO says its troops called in aerial bombing after coming under fire and that at least 10 Taliban fighters have been killed.

No Afghan or NATO forces are based in Nuristan, a province along the border with Pakistan. Only police patrol the volatile region that has seen weeks of on-and-off fighting.