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KABUL: Ten French NATO soldiers were killed in an ambush by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan, prompting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to announce Tuesday he would head to the war-torn country immediately.
Another 21 French soldiers were wounded in the fighting in Sarobi district, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the capital Kabul - marking the worst battlefield toll for foreign troops since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
The French casualties came as troops thwarted a mass Taliban suicide attack on a major US military base, the second such attack on an international facility in as many days.
"Yesterday 10 of our soldiers ... were killed in Afghanistan, 21 others were wounded during a joint reconnaissance mission with the Afghan national army," Sarkozy said in a statement issued in Paris.
"In its struggle against terrorism, France has just been hit hard," he said.
The fighting started Monday when militants ambushed an Afghan army patrol, wounding two soldiers, and French soldiers moved in to reinforce them, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters.
In Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said only that soldiers were involved in a "significant incident with insurgents," adding that it would only release details once the fighting was over.
France has 3,000 troops participating in the 40-nation NATO-led force.
Before the latest fighting, about a dozen French soldiers had lost their lives in various incidents in Afghanistan since the French military deployed to the country in 2003.
It took to 176 the number of international soldiers to be killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in attacks.
The incident was the deadliest for the French army since a 1983 bombing in Lebanon in which 58 French parachutists were killed.
Azimi also said at least 13 Taliban fighters, including a Pakistani national, had been killed in the fighting.
"Thirteen bodies that the enemy left behind have been recovered but their casualties are much higher," Azimi told AFP.
"There was fierce fighting throughout the night," Azimi said at a media briefing, adding that reinforcements had been sent to the area.
The extremist Taliban said it had attacked ISAF troops in Sarobi and blown up several vehicles.
"We have inflicted heavy casualties," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP.
The military had responded with air strikes that killed five Taliban and several civilians, he said.
Taliban statements are not always accurate and the information could not be independently verified.
In the eastern town of Khost meanwhile, ISAF and Afghan troops thwarted an attack on Camp Salerno, the biggest US military base in eastern Afghanistan which is located 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Pakistan.
"A most intense terrorist mass suicide operation was thwarted," the Afghan defence ministry said in a statement.
About 30 fighters tried to storm Salerno, Khost province governor Arsala Jamal told AFP, but ISAF said they were stopped about 1,000 metres (yards) from the camp.
Troops in the base had identified them "posturing to attack the base and engaged them with small-arms fire," the NATO force said.
Helicopters arrived soon afterwards and opened fire on the rebels as they tried to flee.
Seven were killed, six of them suicide bombers, ISAF said.
Of those, three died after they detonated their suicide vests and three other would-be suicide bombers were killed by troops, who suffered no casualties.
Azimi said 13 attackers were killed. "Six blew themselves up, six others died in the explosions and one died in gunfire from commandos. Their bodies have been recovered," he said.
The Khost governor's office said two children had also been killed in the fighting.
It was the second attack on the base in as many days.
A suicide car bomb outside the base on Monday killed 10 Afghan labourers waiting to enter and wounded 13 more.
The Taliban said it was behind both attacks on the camp.
The Taliban were driven from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001 because they would not hand over their Al-Qaeda allies wanted for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But they regrouped, with some of them taking refuge in Pakistan, to launch a snowballing insurgency that military officials say is attracting more Arab, Pakistani and other Muslim fighters.
This year has seen some of the deadliest insurgent attacks, with violence said to be up 50 per cent in some areas compared with 2007. - AFP/ms
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