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US Troops Pull out of Afghan Base After Attack

US troops quit Afghan base where militants killed 9 troops; insurgents move
in, official say.

By AMIR SHAH

The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan

U.S. and Afghan troops have abandoned a remote outpost in eastern
Afghanistan where militants killed nine American soldiers this week,
officials said Wednesday.
Compounding the military setback, insurgents quickly seized the village of
Wanat in Nuristan province after driving out the handful of police left
behind to defend government offices, Afghan officials said.

Some 50 officers were headed to the area to try to regain control, said
Ghoolam Farouq, a senior provincial police official.

Sunday's attack by some 200 militants armed with machine guns,
rocket-propelled grenades and mortars was the deadliest for the U.S.
military in Afghanistan in three years. Rebels fought their way into the
newly established base, wounding another 15 Americans and suffering heavy
casualties of their own, before the defenders and warplanes could drive them
back.

The assault underlined how Islamic militants appear to be gaining strength
nearly eight years after the ouster of the Taliban, and the difficulties
facing foreign and Afghan forces trying to defeat them.

NATO said the post, which lies amid precipitous mountains close to the
Pakistan border, had been vacated, but insisted that international and
Afghan troops will "retain a strong presence in that area with patrolling
and other means."

"We are committed, now more than ever, to establishing a secure environment
that will allow even greater opportunities for development and a stronger
Afghan governmental influence," NATO spokesman Capt. Mike Finney said.

Omar Sami, spokesman for the Nuristan provincial governor, said American and
Afghan soldiers quit the base on Tuesday afternoon. He said they took the
district mayor with them.

Sami said U.S. troops armed local police with more than 20 guns before they
left, but that the officers had fled the village and crossed into
neighboring Kunar province when 100 militants moved into Wanat.

In other violence reported Wednesday, a suicide bombing and a series of
clashes left at least 12 Taliban militants and one civilian dead.

The Kandahar governor said eight militants were killed in the southern
province's Khakrez district in the past two days. A regional Taliban
commander, Mullah Mahmoud, who controlled about 250 fighters, was among the
dead, NATO said.

Police said the suicide bomber attacked one of their patrols in Lashkar Gah,
the capital of neighboring Helmand province, killing a civilian and wounding
six other people, including a policeman.

In eastern Paktika province, police said four militants planning attacks on
supply trucks were killed in an airstrike early Wednesday.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5383854
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Associated Press writer Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar
contributed to this report.

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