Taliban blitz American base

KABUL  - Taliban killed nine US troops when they overrun an American base as bloody fighting broke out in several parts of Afghanistan on Sunday, reports a British newspaper.

Nato reported that the small American Combat Outpost in Dara-i-Pech district of Kunar province, on the border with Nuristan Province in the east of the country, came under heavy fire at around 4.30am local time, according to The Times.

Heavy fighting continued throughout the day with US forces calling in artillery, fast jets and Apache helicopters.

Nato spokesmen warned of casualties "on both sides", and it emerged that nine American soldiers were killed, making it one of the biggest single losses in a day for the coalition since military operations began in the country.

"Insurgents have been firing at the COP with small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars using homes, shops and the mosque in the village of Wanat for cover," said a Nato statement.

The fighting is close to where US forces were accused of killing 15 civilians in an airstrike nine days ago. The governor of Nuristan, Doctor Hazrat Hazratin Noor, told The Times: "The Taliban attacked the US base yesterday (Saturday) and the American planes bombed the area. After the attack, the US troops decided to move their base to the district centre of Wanat and they tried to build shelters there in the bazaar overnight. Now the Taliban have attacked again."

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahed, claimed that the Taliban had overrun the American position.

"From yesterday till now the fighting is going on. We have destroyed the whole base. We don't know how many Americans or Taliban have been killed."

In Helmand, a US soldier was killed during heavy fighting around the town of Sangin and along the Helmand River, which occasionally bordered on a rare naval engagement in the landlocked country.

However, US commander Daniel Dwyer told the BBC on Sunday that the soldiers had been killed in clashes in the north-east of the country but he did not give the number.

According to AFP, international and Afghan security forces killed at least 40 militants in an operation still under way in the southern province of Helmand, the US-led coalition said Sunday.

The fighting started on Saturday after militants ambushed a joint Afghan and international security patrol in the province's volatile Sangin district, the US-led coalition said in a statement.

"The ensuing fight led ANSF (Afghanistan National Security Forces) and coalition forces to return fire and call for precision airstrikes," it said.

"At least 40 militants have been killed in the last two days, while over 30 enemy boats and several ... bridges were also destroyed on the Helmand River," it said.

In the northeast, NATO-led and Afghan soldiers were engaged in heavy battles in Kunar province, after an outpost came under attack early Sunday, officials said.

"The fighting started early today and it's still ongoing. We have taken casualties," said Captain Mike Finney, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

He could not immediately give details.

Four Afghan soldiers had been wounded, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. "Tens of enemies have been killed and wounded but we don't have a figure," he said.

The troops had responded with airstrikes, the deputy provincial governor of adjoining Nuristan province, Abdul Aleem, told AFP.

"Some homes were destroyed and damaged. There have been casualties among all three sides " the locals, Taliban and foreign forces," he said.

Also in Nuristan, four police were missing after days of clashes with insurgents in a district on the border with Pakistan, Aleem said.

Meanwhile, a suicide attacker with bombs strapped to his body rammed a motorbike into a police vehicle in a bazaar in Uruzgan province, causing an explosion that ripped through several shops, a witness said.

Twenty civilians and four policemen were killed in the blast in Deh Rawood, 400km southwest of Kabul, said Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat, adding that 27 wounded people were being treated in hospital.

"Most of the casualties are shopkeepers and people and children who were selling stuff on the roadside," said a shopkeeper who gave his name only as Fazlullah.

"Around 15 shops have been damaged. I saw lots of people killed and injured. I can see human flesh, blood and pieces of metal, wood, clothing scattered around. Everything is bloodied," he told AFP by telephone.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but similar attacks have been carried out by Taliban militants, who have led an insurgency against the Kabul government since being ousted from power in late 2001.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, blaming the "enemies of Afghanistan" - a reference to Taliban and other insurgents.