Over 100 Taliban killed in weekend attack on US troops

Reuters:

NATO forces said Tuesday they had killed more that 100 fighters in a huge weekend battle in eastern Afghanistan in which eight Americans died, the deadliest firefight for U.S. troops in more than a year.

The revised enemy death toll gives an idea of the scale of the battle, one of the biggest of the eight-year-old war, in which hundreds of fighters armed with machine guns, rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attempted to storm remote outposts.

"A more detailed battlefield assessment following the October 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defense, significantly higher losses than originally thought," NATO said in a statement.

The fighters launched their assault on two remote outposts in Nuristan province Saturday, triggering the 13-hour battle in a part of the country U.S. forces had already planned to abandon under a new strategy calling for a focus on population centres.

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This is what happens when enemy forces mass against US positions, because it gives us the opportunity to apply our superior fire power to the fight. The Taliban are not able to sustain this kind of battle. That is another reason why I oppose pulling these troops out of positions along the enemy rat lines into the country. I would put more out there to make the positions stronger.

Bill Roggio also covers the death count.