10 French soldiers killed in Taliban ambush

TEN French Nato soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, in the deadliest combat incident for foreign troops since the start of the US-led war in 2001.

The shock attack also left 21 French troops wounded, and prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy to announce he would immediately head to the country, where the monthly death toll for foreign forces has topped war-torn Iraq.

News of the attack came as the resurgent Taliban attempted a mass suicide attack on a US military base, in a defiant reminder that tens of thousands of international troops have not been able to keep the Islamic militants at bay.

“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.

The ambush took place in the district of Sarobi, 50km east of Kabul, the Afghan capital which has been increasingly targeted by the Taliban.

About 100 insurgents attacked a patrol containing French and Afghan troops, said Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, under which about 3,000 French soldiers serve. The fighting began on Monday and continued yesterday, it said in a statement.