The Taliban insurgents who attacked an American-run NATO base near the Pakistan border on Sunday numbered as many as 200 and some managed to breach the walls of the outpost in what was a well-planned attack that took the soldiers on the base by surprise, officials said Monday.

The insurgents, who were repulsed, came so close that some of their corpses were lying around the base afterwards, Tamim Nuristani, the former governor of the region said after talking to officials in the district. A Western official requesting anonymity also confirmed that the Taliban did breach part of the base.

The attack on the base in Kunar Province left nine American soldiers dead, the worst single loss for the American military in Afghanistan since June 2005 and one of the worst since the Taliban and their Al Qaeda associates were routed in late 2001.

 

American and NATO military officials said the attack reflected the Taliban’s resurgence from new bases in neighboring Pakistan and underscored the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where war casualties have jumped this year.

Inside the base soldiers were hit by shrapnel from incoming missiles and bullets from insurgents who were firing from the cover of village houses within a few hundred yards of the base, several officials said. Besides the nine killed, 15 American and four Afghan soldiers were wounded in the battle. The total number of soldiers assigned to the base has not been disclosed.

The Afghan soldiers received slight bullet wounds in the fight, according to the commander of the 201st Corps, Gen. Muhammad Rahim Wardak, and one had already returned to duty.