US troops repel Afghan attack, kill 30 insurgents

US troops killed as many as 30 insurgents after calling in air strikes to repel a Taliban attack on their outpost in southeast Afghanistan on Saturday, the NATO-led coalition said.

Five US troops were wounded in the attack when the base in Paktika province came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, gunfire and mortars, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and a regional army spokesman said.

Rising violence and record casualties among foreign troops and civilians are likely to weigh heavily on U.S. President Barack Obama's review of his Afghanistan war strategy in December and at a NATO summit in Lisbon next month.

"Insurgents attacked from all directions with rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and mortar fire," ISAF said. "Initial operational reporting indicates more than 30 insurgents were killed in the failed attack."

US Army Major Patrick Seiber, a spokesman for the ISAF regional command in the east which includes Paktika, said at least 19 insurgents had been confirmed dead.

NATO-led forces were checking the area for more dead and wounded, he said.

Afghan army general Zemarai, who has only one name, earlier said the bodies of at least 15 insurgents were seen lying on the battlefield after the attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Islamist group had attacked the base, claiming that six police outposts had been overrun in the assault.

Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, Mujahid said Taliban fighters had inflicted "high casualties" on ISAF and Afghan forces but gave no further details. He said eight Taliban fighters had been killed.

The Taliban often make exaggerated or unconfirmed claims about such attacks.

The Taliban and other insurgents such as the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network have launched a series of brazen assaults on foreign bases and government buildings in the past year in a bid to topple President Hamid Karzai and force out foreign troops.

Afghanistan's insurgency has spread from the Taliban's heartland in the south and east to other parts of Afghanistan, including northern provinces and the western city of Herat, which had long been considered safer.

Last month, five suicide bombers were killed during an attack on a similar-sized military base in neighbouring Paktia province to the north of Paktika.

Four suicide bombers attacked a United Nations base a week ago in Herat, which had been seen as one of the areas where it could be safe enough to begin transferring security responsibility from ISAF to Afghan forces.

Fighting in Afghanistan's war is at its most intense since the conflict began in 2001 when US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban. More than 2,000 foreign troops have been killed since the war began, over half of those in the past two years.

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