But on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the US-led military action to oust them from power, the Taliban vowed to continue their deadly insurgency, warning foreign forces: "We are prepared for a long fight."

Three days after NATO's biggest loss of life in a single incident since 10 French troops were killed in an ambush in August 2008, NATO said the Taliban had suffered "significantly higher losses than originally thought".

"A more detailed battlefield assessment following the October 3 attack in Nuristan (province) has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defence," an ISAF statement read.

Hundreds of militant fighters on Saturday swept down a hillside at dawn near the mountainous border with Pakistan, over which Al-Qaeda and Taliban sympathisers are based, to attack two Afghan army and NATO outposts.

The resulting firefight lasted into the night and led to US troops calling in airstrikes.

Two Afghan soldiers and a police officer also lost their lives in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban.

Some 13 police officers and two Afghan journalists working for a radio station set up with US help were captured, local officials said, adding that only five Taliban were killed.

ISAF said Tuesday the Hizb-i-Islami militia of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was also possibly involved.

Hekmatyar, a Pashtun warlord and former Afghan prime minister, is one of Afghanistan's most wanted men and known to ally himself with guerrillas opposed to foreign forces.

In the wake of the attack, NATO and Afghan troops conducted a joint operation to flush out insurgents thought responsible.

This year has been the deadliest for foreign forces in Afghanistan since the war began. According to an independent website, icasualties.org, which tracks coalition deaths, 400 international soldiers have died so far in 2009.

Faced with an upsurge in violence, the head of the 100,000-strong US and NATO force, General Stanley McChrystal, has reportedly asked for 40,000 more troops and wants a switch to concentrating on the militant threat in cities.

But some analysts have suggested that redeploying troops from rural regions, particularly in the strategically important border areas, could allow the Taliban to spread their footprint further.

Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy Studies, told AFP that more similar large-scale attacks were likely as the Taliban seek to exploit a lack of NATO and Afghan troops along the remote frontier.

One think-tank has said that despite being virtually wiped out in early 2002, the Taliban now has a "permanent presence" in 80 percent of Afghanistan.

The Taliban said in a statement that they were still fighting for the "freedom of the country and Islamic sovereignty", as the increasingly bloody war enters its ninth year.

The statement, emailed to news organisations and written in Pashtun, denied they ever had a programme to harm other countries.

But they warned foreign forces: "If you still want to occupy this proud and religious people's country under the name of fighting terrorism, you should know that we have a lot of patience and we are prepared for a long fight."

The militants also warned the "Western occupiers" that they should "learn from history" and that Afghans were prepared to sacrifice their lives for Islam and their country.

earlier related report
Afghan defeat would give Al-Qaeda propaganda coup: Gates
A victory by insurgents in Afghanistan would allow Al-Qaeda to resume a foothold in the country and provide it with a "hugely empowering message," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned.

Gates said Monday evening there was no doubt that if Taliban insurgents took hold of "large portions" of Afghanistan, it would mean "added space for Al-Qaeda to strengthen itself."

He was speaking before an audience at George Washington University in an interview with CNN which was to air Tuesday.

Although it was unclear whether Al-Qaeda would move its base of operations from northwest Pakistan back to Afghanistan if Islamist insurgents took power in Kabul, Gates said the symbolism of a US and NATO defeat would hand Al-Qaeda a major propaganda victory.

"But what's more important in my view is the message that it sends, that empowers Al-Qaeda," said Gates, in a joint interview along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He also said there was no question of the United States pulling out of Afghanistan, despite a strategy review underway at the White House.

"I had lunch with the Pakistani ambassador last week, and I made absolutely clear to him: we are not leaving Afghanistan," Gates said.

Gates stressed there was no doubt about US interests in the region which carried tremendous importance for Al-Qaeda and the network's ideology.

The Afghanistan-Pakistan border "is the modern epicenter of jihad," he said.

"It is where the mujahedeen defeated the other superpower," said Gates, referring to the Soviet defeat in the 1980s at the hands of Islamist militants.

The Al-Qaeda leaders believe "they now have the ability to defeat a second superpower," he said.

"Al-Qaeda in many respects is an ideology and the notion that they have come back from this defeat... to challenge not only the United States, but NATO, 42 nations and so on, is a hugely empowering message -- should they be successful," said Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

His comments come amid a high-stakes review of war strategy at the White House, with President Barack Obama facing a request from the US commander to send in more troops even as American forces are due to reach 68,000 by the end of the year.

Gates's statements contrasted with some of the mission's skeptics in Congress, who argue Al-Qaeda leaders have regrouped in neighboring Pakistan and that the fight against Afghan insurgents may be a costly distraction.

US forces have been battling the Taliban since toppling the regime eight years ago following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Gates said the Taliban had regrouped in the years after its ouster while the United States and its NATO allies had failed to provide sufficient forces to counter the insurgents.

"The reality is that because of our inability and the inability frankly of our allies to put enough troops into Afghanistan, the Taliban do have momentum right now it seems," he said.

On Saturday a brazen assault by hundreds of militants in the remote eastern province of Nuristan left eight US soldiers dead, in NATO's biggest loss of life in a single incident in Afghanistan in more than a year.

Both Gates and Clinton said the goal of coalition forces -- to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven again for Al-Qaeda -- had not changed, and that the president's strategy review was designed to assess the best way to achieve that objective.

Gates and Clinton voiced support for the pace of White House deliberations as thorough and necessary, despite criticism from Republicans in Congress accusing Obama of indecision on the war.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News