Kabul » Most of the soldiers were still asleep when gunfire rang out and insurgents stormed their isolated base from all sides. Eight Americans and three Afghan soldiers died.
The Americans weren't even supposed to be there. Combat Outpost Keating had been scheduled to be closed months before the Oct. 3 assault. A U.S. military investigation released Friday blamed lapses in oversight and a delay in closing the remote outpost for one of the heaviest American combat losses in a single engagement during the Afghan war.
The findings demonstrate the increasing vulnerability of the Americans and their NATO allies, even as 37,000 U.S. and NATO reinforcements pour into the country. The investigation also pointed to training deficiencies in the Afghan army.
Afghan soldiers failed to hold their position on the eastern side of the compound and insurgents penetrated the outpost's perimeter at three locations, according to the report. The readiness of Afghan forces to take over their own security so foreign troops can leave is a key component of President Barack Obama's war strategy.
The battle broke out when an estimated 300 insurgents -- five times the number of defenders -- stormed the base in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistan border with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and automatic weapons just before 6 a.m., according to the report.
The base was surrounded by higher mountains.
"I think if we were in a different area, in an elevated position, the odds would have been much better for us," Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Hill told military officials in a videotaped interview after the attack. "The problem is, it was basically in a fishbowl."
Sgt. Eric Harder recalled his anger at seeing the Afghan soldiers running away.
"That was a pretty hard thing to realize that they just took off without us. Or, not without us, but they just ditched us," he told military officials in a videotaped interview.
He said he found an Afghan soldier hiding in the building but "didn't see one fight."
The U.S. soldiers "heroically repelled a complex attack" after calling in air support, according to the investigation, which was led by Army Maj. Gen. Guy Swan.
About 150 insurgents were killed. It marked the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a firefight since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a similar raid on an isolated outpost in Wanat in the same province.
Optimistic about war » NATO and U.S. officials are putting a more optimistic face on the eight-year-old Afghanistan war, suggesting that tens of thousands more foreign troops can finally turn the corner against a growing Taliban insurgency. "After a difficult year in 2009, we now see a new momentum in 2010," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday. He had just completed strategy discussions that looked ahead to an expected push against Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan this spring.
Commanders rebuked » The U.S. military has reprimanded an unusually large number of commanders for battlefield failures in Afghanistan in recent weeks, reflecting a new push by the top brass to hold commanders responsible for major incidents in which troops are killed or wounded, said senior military officials. The military does not release figures on disciplinary actions taken against field commanders. But officials familiar with recent investigations said letters of reprimand or other disciplinary action have been recommended for officers involved in three ambushes in which U.S. troops battled Taliban forces in remote villages in 2008 and 2009. Such administrative actions can scuttle chances for promotions and end careers if they are made part of an officer's permanent personnel file.
Sources » The Associated Press, The Washington Post
