Spokesman for ISAF talks about attack on outpost in Afghanistan

(NECN/APTV) – An International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) spokesman in Afghanistan confirmed on Sunday that eight US soldiers were killed in an attack on a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border. As many as seven Afghan forces were also killed when militants streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque raided the outposts on Saturday. “In Kamdesh, Nuristan the insurgents have conducted an attack against an ISAF, two ISAF compounds and Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF),” ISAF spokesman, Brigadier General Eric Tremblay said in Kabul. “ISAF and the Afghan National Security Forces have repelled the attack of the insurgents but eight US soldiers were killed in action and one Afghan national police was also killed in action,” he added. The discrepancy in the number of Afghan forces killed could not be immediately explained. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The US has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers. Fighting began around dawn on Saturday and lasted several hours, punctuated by American air strikes. Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province, said the two outposts were on a hill – one near the top and one at the foot of the slope – flanked by the village on one side and the mosque on the other. According to Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief, nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions. Jangulbagh said that the ensuing gun-battle included US air strikes and that 15 Afghan police were captured by the Taliban, including the local police chief and his deputy. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said a council would decide the fates of the police, confirming the capture of the two top local officers. Afghan forces were sent as reinforcements, but Jangulbagh said all communications to the district, Kamdesh, were severed and he had no way of knowing how they were faring on Sunday. The area is just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Pakistani border and 150 miles (230 kilometers) from Kabul. Jangulbagh said the bodies of five enemy fighters were found after the battle. US Captain Elizabeth Mathias, a military spokeswoman, said American forces continued to man the outpost and there was scattered fighting early on Sunday. She said was unclear if the attackers were Taliban or from another group linked to them. She said American officials were working with the Afghan army to relay messages to Afghan forces in the area. Nuristan, bordering Pakistan, was where a militant raid on another outpost in July 2008 claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. Army General David Petraeus last week ordered a new investigation into that fighting, in which some 200 militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars pushed their way into the base, which is no longer operating. Badar said he had sought more security forces for Kamdesh district. He said Taliban fighters had fled to Nuristan and neighboring Kunar province after Pakistani forces drove many extremists from the Swat Valley earlier this year. He also complained about a lack of coordination between international forces and Afghans. The US statement said the attack would not change previously announced plans to leave the area.