Taliban fighters attack U.S. camp, kill Romanian soldier

The Americans used machine guns and mortars to repel the attackers in Helmand province’s remote Baghran Valley. U.S. warplanes were called in to bomb a militant hideout and the American military said a few of the fighters were probably killed. Local residents said an elderly couple was killed in the air raid.

The clash was the fiercest encountered by troops from the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, N.Y., since they were air-dropped on a mountaintop over the weekend to block Taliban supply routes.

It followed a bombing raid by coalition helicopters on a Taliban camp in the same area late Monday that killed five militants and wounded eight.

The American troops are among more than 10,000 U.S., British, Canadian and Afghan soldiers taking part in Operation Mountain Thrust, a campaign to try to kill or capture militants responsible for a surge in violence recently.

More than 600 people, mostly militants, have died in the past month as insurgents launched their deadliest campaign since the Taliban’s 2001 ouster. That includes about 110 militants killed since the offensive began in earnest last week. At least 10 coalition soldiers have died since mid-May.

Up to 60 militants launched Tuesday morning’s attack on U.S. soldiers dug into a Baghran Valley mountain ridge, firing a barrages of mortar or rocket-propelled grenades, said company commander Capt. Jared Wilson, 28, of Petaluma, Calif.

U.S. forces responded, lighting up the night sky with machine gun tracer fire and mortars. No U.S. soldiers were hurt.

It was likely a "few” of the militants were killed or wounded but no bodies were recovered, Wilson said.

"The enemy ... is very good at pulling their dead from the battlefield,” he said.

Troops called in U.S. air support to hit two compounds where suspected militants had gathered close to the American forces. An A-10 Warthog bomber strafed the position before a B-1 bomber dropped a 2,000 pound bomb, sending a plume of smoke soaring into the moonlit sky.

At daybreak, soldiers hiked down the steep mountainside to assess the damage.

Gul Ahmed, an Afghan man living in the compound, said Taliban fighters had taken over the settlement and his elderly parents, who were too old to flee, died in the airstrike.

"My home is ruined, my family is buried in rubble and my animals are dead,” said Ahmed, whose mud-brick home was the only building destroyed in the compound. "Why would I let the Taliban in?”

Soldiers questioned about a dozen men in the compound and surrounding area for intelligence. A rough drawing of U.S. positions on the ridge was found sketched out in chalk on a mud brick wall.

Wilson, the U.S. captain, told village elders that the U.S. mission would help the Afghan government extend its reach into northern Helmand where the government has little official presence.

"I want them to understand I am very sorry for the loss of the man’s (Ahmed’s) family,” Wilson told the elders through an interpreter. "But we would not have had to do what we did if the Taliban had not been here.”

In neighboring Kandahar province, a massive explosion tore apart a Romanian tank, killing one soldier and wounding three others, the Romanian Defense Ministry said.

A fourth soldier in the four-vehicle Romanian convoy was wounded in the leg when he stepped on another explosive device after trying to help the targeted vehicle, the statement said.

The Romanian troops were returning to their base at the time of the explosions. The first blast was so powerful, it split a tank in two and left its hull engulfed in flames, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

The attack took the number of Romanian soldiers killed since 2003 to at least four. Romania has about 700 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan.

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Associated Press writer Noor Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar.<