The Nato-led effort to subdue the Taliban suffered one of its heaviest blows since the 2001 invasion on Sunday when nine US soldiers were killed and 15 other Nato troops injured in a day-long battle in a region close to the Pakistan border.
The US troops died as their base came under attack in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan. The news puts further pressure on Pakistan, where coalition forces believe many Taliban militants are based. It was among the biggest losses for the coalition since the start of the war.
The fighting was set off after a multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote US base. Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat, in Kunar, a mountainous region that borders Pakistan, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said.
The attack began at 4.30am and lasted throughout the day, claiming the lives of nine Americans and dozens of Taliban.
It was the deadliest incident for US troops in Afghanistan since June 2005, when 16 troops were killed when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
A spokesperson for Isaf in Kabul said on Sunday night: ”We defended this base. There are still some operations on-going. The insurgents were repulsed and there is no fighting now but they might pop up again.” There were ”heavy casualties” among the Taliban, according to the coalition.
With 28 soldiers killed, June was the deadliest month for coalition forces since 2001. July is looking to be costly in military and civilian terms. Earlier this month, the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 41. The Afghan authorities accused Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency of orchestrating the bombing.
Earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 24 people, many of them children, in the southern province of Uruzgan. A gun battle in Helmand province, also in the south, killed more than 40 militants, the coalition said. Another attack in Helmand left an Isaf soldier dead — the nationality was not disclosed.
Elsewhere, Taliban militants killed two women in central Afghanistan after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a US base. The women, dressed in burkas, were shot and killed on Saturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan.
Taliban suicide bombs have killed more than 230 civilians and wounded nearly 500 this year. There are signs that Washington is losing patience with Pakistan for not stopping the use of its tribal area as a safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Worse, parts of Pakistan’s security apparatus are suspected of secretly supporting the Taliban. There are fears in Pakistan that the US could attack militants based on Pakistan’s side of the border, concern that will be heightened by the scale of the US casualties on Sunday.
On Saturday, the head of the US military, Admiral Mike Mullen, made a surprise visit to Islamabad with a blunt message: cooperate in the ”war on terror” or face unilateral US intervention.
Britain has already signalled that Afghanistan has become a higher priority than Iraq, as it draws down troops from Basra and steps up its involvement in Helmand. There were signs at the weekend that Washington may be considering a similar switch, as it emerged that US President George Bush is deliberating faster troop withdrawals from Iraq during his final months in the White House. The New York Times reported on Sunday that as many as three of the 15 combat brigades in Iraq could be withdrawn by the time he leaves office. – guardian.co.uk