NATO forces abandon Afghan outpost after deadly attack

Published: Wednesday July 16, 2008
NATO said Wednesday it had abandoned an Afghan outpost days after it was stormed by militants who killed nine US soldiers.
The soldiers pulled out of the outpost in Wanat village in northeastern Kunar province on Tuesday, Afghan officials said.
"We are confirming that we have vacated our combat outpost at Wanat," NATO spokesman in Afghanistan, Mark Laity, told AFP.
"All these kinds of outposts are temporary. They serve a purpose and when we consider appropriate we will move them," he said.
The area has since been taken over by Taliban militants, an Afghan official said.
Fifteen US and four Afghan soldiers were wounded in Sunday's fighting, in which militants breached the outpost.
The attack was one of the deadliest involving international forces, who arrived in Afghanistan after a US-led invasion that drove the Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban from government in late 2001.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sent troop reinforcements and war planes to the area to repel the attack. The defence ministry said 40 rebels were killed in the fighting, while another seven were slain in subsequent clashes.
Laity said ISAF would "be maintaining a strong presence in that area through patrolling and other means" after leaving the outpost.
He could not confirm claims by a government official that the withdrawal had caused Afghan police to lose control over the adjoining Waant-Waygal district in Nuristan province.
"When ISAF withdrew yesterday, we couldn't stand up against the Taliban," said Omar Sami Taza, secretary for the Nuristan governor.
"We pulled back and the district fell into the Taliban's hand. We will send more troops from the centre to recapture it."
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