US: Insurgents Breached Base During Kamdesh Battle

A U.S. military official said Wednesday that insurgents behind one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops during the eight-year Afghan war breached the perimeter of a U.S. outpost before being repelled.

Eight American and three Afghan soldiers were killed in the nearly six-hour firefight Saturday, the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle here in more than a year.

U.S. public affairs officer Maj. T.G. Taylor said large portions of the base in Kamdesh burned down, probably by incoming fire.

Taylor said the base in eastern Afghanistan was secured and insurgents forced out. It was not clear how the insurgents got on the base or how many.

Most U.S. installations in Iraq and Afghanistan are heavily guarded with rings of concertina wire, huge sand-filled barriers, blast walls and security cameras. It is rare _ almost unheard of _ for insurgents to breach such defenses and get inside.

Taylor said in an interview Wednesday that 23 Americans and 10 Afghan soldiers were wounded during Saturday's combat, which took place in a mountainous region of Nuristan province near the Pakistani border.