The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today!
Hundreds of insurgents laid siege to two outposts near the Pakistan border Saturday, killing eight U.S. soldiers and at least two Afghan soldiers, and capturing roughly 20 Afghan security troops in what is being called the deadliest fight in the region in more than a year. The dead U.S. soldiers were all from Fort Carson’s 4th Infantry Division, 4th Brigade, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. For the Colorado Springs-based Army base, the attacks on the remote outposts in the Nuristan province represent the deadliest day since the Vietnam war. The soldiers’ names have not been released because the Army is still attempting to notify family members. “My heart goes out to the families of those we have lost and to their fellow Soldiers who remained to finish this fight,” Colonel Randy George, the brigade’s commander, said in a statement late Saturday. “This was a complex attack in a difficult area. Both the U.S. and Afghan Soldiers fought bravely together; I am extremely proud of their professionalism and bravery.” The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which has ignited a firestorm within President Barack Obama’s administration. General James L. Jones, Obama’s national security adviser seemed to distance himself from Afghanistan commanding General Stanley McChrystal, saying he did not believe Afghanistan was in “imminent danger of falling” to the Taliban (via The New York Times). Fort Carson has lost 270 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, not counting Saturday’s deaths, reports The Denver Post.