KABUL - Nine soldiers with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were killed in heavy clashes near the Pakistan border on Sunday, the alliance's International Security Assistance Force said.
Another 15 ISAF soldiers were wounded along with four Afghan troops, the force said in a statement.
It was one of the deadliest battles for the international forces that arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001 to oust the hardline Taliban movement now waging an insurgency.
The fighting was in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, where an Afghan official said earlier that insurgents had stormed an ISAF and Afghan outpost in the early hours of the morning.
"Nine ISAF soldiers died in fighting in northeastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border," the statement said.
"The fighting began in early morning hours and continued into the day as insurgents were repulsed from an Afghan National Army and ISAF Combat Outpost," it said.
The force believed insurgents had also suffered heavy casualties during several hours of fighting, it said.
ISAF, which draws nearly 53,000 soldiers from about 40 countries, did not give the nationalities of its casualties, leaving such announcements for their home nation.
But most of the soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals, who make up the bulk of international soldiers in the country.
The force also did not identify the militants who had attacked. Taliban are the main players in Afghanistan's insurgency but other militants, including from Al-Qaeda, are also involved in what they call a jihad, or holy war.
The new killings take to past 130 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in rebel attacks.
br/tha
07/13/2008 17:46 GMT