Nine US troops killed as Taliban attack remote base

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The Nato-led effort to subdue the Taliban suffered one of itsheaviest blows since the 2001 invasion on Sunday when nine USsoldiers were killed and 15 other Nato troops injured in a day-longbattle in a region close to the Pakistan border.

The US troops died as their base came under attack in Kunarprovince, eastern Afghanistan. The news puts further pressure onPakistan, where coalition forces believe many Taliban militants arebased. It was among the biggest losses for the coalition since thestart of the war.

The fighting was set off after a multi-pronged militant assault ona small, remote US base. Militants fired machine guns,rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque inthe village of Wanat, in Kunar, a mountainous region that bordersPakistan, Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf)said.

The attack began at 4.30am and lasted throughout the day, claimingthe lives of nine Americans and dozens of Taliban.

It was the deadliest incident for US troops in Afghanistan sinceJune 2005, when 16 troops were killed when their helicopter wasshot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

A spokesperson for Isaf in Kabul said on Sunday night: "We defendedthis base. There are still some operations on-going. The insurgentswere repulsed and there is no fighting now but they might pop upagain." There were "heavy casualties" among the Taliban, accordingto the coalition.

With 28 soldiers killed, June was the deadliest month for coalitionforces since 2001. July is looking to be costly in military andcivilian terms. Earlier this month, the bombing of the Indianembassy in Kabul killed 41. The Afghan authorities accusedPakistan's ISI intelligence agency of orchestrating the bombing.

Earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 24people, many of them children, in the southern province of Uruzgan.A gun battle in Helmand province, also in the south, killed morethan 40 militants, the coalition said. Another attack in Helmandleft an Isaf soldier dead -- the nationality was not disclosed.

Elsewhere, Taliban militants killed two women in centralAfghanistan after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a USbase. The women, dressed in burkas, were shot and killed onSaturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan.