KABUL, Oct 4: Hundreds of militants armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight US soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan troops in the deadliest assault against US forces in more than a year, military officials said on Sunday.

The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn on Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war.

It was the heaviest US loss of life in a single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.

Gen Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, plans to shift US troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new strategy to focus on protecting Afghan civilians.

US troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and air strikes on Saturday to repel the attackers, inflicting “heavy enemy casualties,” according to a Nato statement. Fighting persisted in the area on Sunday, US and Afghan officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nato spokesman Brig-Gen Eric Tremblay said the assailants included a mix of tribal militias, Taliban and fighters loyal to Sirajudin Haqqani, an Al Qaeda-linked militant believed to be based in sanctuaries in tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Afghan authorities said the hostile force included fighters who had been driven out of the Swat valley in Pakistan after a military offensive there recently.

Complex attack

“This was a complex attack in a difficult area,” US Col Randy George, the area commander, said in a statement. “Both the US and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together.”

Details of the attack remained unclear and there were conflicting reports of Afghan losses due to poor communications in the area, located just 30km from the Pakistani border and about 230km from Kabul.

A Nato statement said the attacks were launched from a mosque and a nearby village on opposite sides of a hill, which included the two outposts — one mostly American position on the summit and another mostly Afghan police garrison on a lower slope.

Nato said eight Americans and two Afghan security troopers were killed.

An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three Afghan soldiers and one policeman had been killed in two days of fighting. He also said at least seven Afghan army soldiers were missing and feared captured.

Provincial police chief Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh said 15 Afghan policemen had been captured, including the local police chief and his deputy. Mr Jangulbagh estimated that about 300 militants took part in the attack.

“Kamdesh is one of the most dangerous areas of Nuristan province,” he said.

Mr Jangulbagh said that after Pakistani forces drove militants from most of the Swat valley five months ago, militants “received orders to come to Nuristan and destabilise the situation.”

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said militants overran both outposts, but US spokeswoman Capt Elizabeth Mathias said US troops were holding the outposts. She also said a roadside bomb killed a US service member southwest of Kabul on Saturday, bringing the US death toll for the month to 15.

The fighting occurred in a region where towering mountains and dense pine forests have long served as a staging area for the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.

The region was a key area for Arab militants who fought alongside Afghan warriors during the US-backed war against the Soviets in the 1980s.

The weekend fighting was reminiscent of the July 2008 battle of Wanat when an estimated 200 militants stormed an outpost defended by about 70 US and Afghan soldiers, nearly overrunning the position.

White House National Security Adviser James Jones said on Sunday he did not foresee the return to power of the Taliban.Mr Jones also told CNN’s State of the Union that Afghanistan “is not in any danger of falling”.—Agencies
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