KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Eight U.S. troops died in tribal militia attacks on two remote American outposts in eastern Afghanistan Saturday, military officials said.
The attacks, which also killed two Afghan security officers, were the deadliest in months for American troops, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The coordinated attacks by tribal militia occurred in the Nuristan province, along the Pakistan border, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
The tribal fighters mounted the attacks from a mosque and a village in the Kamdish district in the eastern part of the province, and American forces "effectively repelled the attack and inflicted heavy enemy casualties," the U.S .military said.
The commander of the American unit, Col. Randy George, called the strike "a complex attack in a difficult area," the Times said.
Nine U.S. troops died in the area when 200 insurgents attacked an American outpost in Wanat in July 2008 in one of the bloodiest attacks of the war, the Times said.
U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has outlined a new strategy to close down many of the remote outposts like those that came under attack.
