Taliban Kills 8 US Soldiers in Daring Attack
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
This is the deadliest attack against foreign troops in more than a year. (Reuters)
KABUL — At least eight US troops and two Afghan soldiers were killed and several others injured late Saturday, October 3, in a daring Taliban attack on NATO bases in eastern Afghanistan, the deadliest attack on foreign troops in more than a year. "My heart goes out to the families of those we have lost and to their fellow soldiers who remained to finish the fight," Colonel Randy George, commander of the US force in the eastern mountain area bordering Pakistan, said in a statement cited by Reuters.
No exact details were given on the location of the firefight, which targeted two joint NATO and Afghan outposts in Nuristan province in the remote east of the country.
"This was a complex attack in a difficult area,” the NATO said in a statement after the attack.
It acknowledged that eight foreign troops, all Americans, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in the attack.
Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed they had killed 30 foreign and Afghan troops.
He said they were now holding the district police chief, an intelligence chief and scores of soldiers captive.
The province's deputy police chief Mohammad Farooq admitted that the fate of an entire 90-strong police force in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan was unknown.
This is the deadliest attack suffered by international forces since August 2008 when ten French troops were killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan.
Growing Taliban attacks have made 2009 the worst year for foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion of the country.
Some 394 soldiers have died so far this year, 236 of them Americans, according to a tally of coalition deaths by the independent icasualties.org website.
More than 1,430 soldiers have died since 2001.
Strong Taliban
"Taliban are in a strong position...They want to show that they are everywhere," Abou Zahab said. (Google)Observers believe Taliban, through such spectacular attacks, is trying to show it can hit at anytime and anywhere in Afghanistan.
"The Taliban are in a strong position," Mariam Abou Zahab, from the Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
"They want to show that they are everywhere.”
Taliban were virtually wiped out in 2002 but has been on the march for quite some time now.
The London-based International Council on Security and Development think-tank estimates Taliban now has a permanent presence in 80 percent of the country.
North and west Afghanistan were calm until the start of this year, but have seen a sharp increase in Taliban attacks in recent months.
Like in the south and the east, fighting between Taliban and foreign troops has now become an almost daily occurrence.
Zahab attributed the growing Taliban resilience to an increasing public resentment against foreign troops.
"What is clear for the Afghans is that the presence of foreign troops is feeding the insurgency and that there is a virtual consensus that they should leave."
There are over 103,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including nearly 78,000 American soldiers.
The commander of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has recently described the Afghan security situation as "serious" and requested up to 40,000 additional US troops.
US President Barack Obama - who has already sent thousands of extra troops to the country - says strategy in Afghanistan must be agreed before a decision can be made before any such decision.
Taliban Kills 8 US Soldiers in Daring Attack
