TALEBAN fighters killed nine US soldiers and wounded 15 others in a small remote American base in Afghanistan yesterday.
In the deadliest attack on US forces in the country in three years, militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the north-eastern province of Kunar, a mountainous reg
ion that borders Pakistan, Nato's International Security Assistance Force said.
Nato confirmed nine of its soldiers had been killed and 15 wounded, and that four Afghan soldiers were also wounded.
"Although no final assessment has been made, it is believed insurgents suffered heavy casualties during several hours of fighting," a spokesman said.
The attack is the deadliest for US troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 American troops were killed – also in Kunar province – when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Those troops were on their way to rescue a four-man team of Navy Seals caught in a militant ambush.
Three Seals were killed, the fourth was rescued days later by a farmer.
Yesterday's attack came during a period of rising violence in Afghanistan. Monthly death tolls of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan surpassed US military deaths in Iraq in May and June.
Last Monday, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing 58 people in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since 2001.
In two other incidents this month, an Afghan government commission found that US aircraft killed 47 civilians during a bombing run in Nangarhar province, while a separate incident in Nuristan province is alleged by an Afghan officials to have killed 22 civilians.
Also yesterday at least 40 militants were killed following an attack on Afghan and US-led coalition forces in Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement. The militants attacked the combined forces near Sangin on Saturday from "multiple concealed and fortified positions," the coalition said.
Thirty "enemy boats" and several small bridges were destroyed on the Helmand River during two days of fighting, it said.
And a soldier with Nato's International Security Assistance Force died in a roadside blast in Helmand province yesterday, a statement said. The soldier's nationality was not released and it wasn't clear if the death was connected to the two-day battle.
More than 2,300 people – mostly militants – have died in insurgency related violence this year.
In the north, a soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion on Saturday, the military alliance said. The statement did not give any further details of the explosion. The soldier's nationality was not disclosed. There are nearly 53,000 troops from 40 nations serving in Afghanistan.
In the eastern Logar province, meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver yesterday, said provincial police chief General Mohammad Mustafa.
The high casualty tolls have prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross to this week ask all sides to show restraint and avoid civilian casualties.
