US suffers heavy Afghan losses

US suffers heavy Afghan losses July 13, 2008: Nine US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in clashes with Taleban militants. US commander Daniel Dwyer told the BBC the soldiers had been killed in clashes in the north-east of the country. The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says it is one of the biggest single losses in a day for the coalition since the start of military operations there. The attack came as international and Afghan security forces battled militants on several fronts. On Sunday, US forces said 40 insurgents had been killed in Helmand province in the past 24 hours. Insurgents 'hiding' There are conflicting reports as to where the latest attack took place. A foreign military spokesman said US soldiers and members of the Afghan National Army came under attack at a remote base in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan. But Afghan officials insist the fighting took place in neighbouring Nuristan province. In a statement earlier, Nato reported that a small American Combat Outpost in Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar province, came under heavy fire at around 0430 local time (2400 GMT). It said insurgents had fired "with small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars using homes, shops and the mosque in the village of Wanat for cover." Combined International Security Assistance Forces (Isaf) and Afghan National Army forces responded with small arms, machine guns, mortars and artillery, it said. Fighter jets and Apache helicopters were also brought in. Reports say that dozens of Taleban militants were also killed in the attack. There has been no confirmation of this. Our correspondent says Afghanistan's north-eastern border with Pakistan is a well-known trouble spot, and that there are frequent Taleban attacks on international and National Afghan forces. The fighting is close to where US forces were accused of killing 47 civilians in an air strike in Nangarhar province a week ago. The US military said they were militants. In a separate incident on Sunday, a suicide bomber killed at least 21 people, many of them children, in a market in the Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province. No group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.