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The Battle of Kamdesh, one of the most deadly military engagements during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, turned especially bloody – leaving eight Americans dead and 22 wounded – because troops and aircraft normally tasked to support U.S. fighting men and woman were diverted to search for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The Oct. 3, 2009 battle at Combat Outpost Keating, near the town of Kamdesh in Nuristan province, lasted more than 12 hours and earned two Army staff sergeants the Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery the Pentagon can bestow on a warrior. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2647711/Revealed-Hunt-Bowe-Bergdahl-left-troops-unprotected-bloody-battle-left-EIGHT-U-S-soldiers-dead-22-wounded-produced-two-Medal-Honor-recipients.html#ixzz33dBfsoz2 Follow us: @MailOnline...

A U.S. military investigation says command failures left American soldiers in an indefensible position without adequate support when hundreds of insurgents attacked their remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and guns. Eight troops died. Twenty-two others were wounded during the October 2009 attack on Combat Outpost Keating, one the deadliest battles during the nearly decade-long war. The investigation released Friday by U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., recommended giving four officers letters of admonition or reprimand for putting the 53 American troops in a vulnerable position at the outpost in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistan border.

Last week, Rich and I discussed the horrific Taliban attack in remote Nuristan province (near the Af/Pak border) in which 8 American soldiers were killed. (See here, here and here.) About 200 Taliban raided a combat outpost near Kamdesh. The initial reporting from the Washington Post (here) indicated our troops were sitting ducks: In inadequate numbers, they were left in an intolerably perilous and tactically useless situation due to (a) the desire to accommodate the political needs of the Karzai government we are trying to prop up, (b) equipment shortages, and (c) the study of the overall Afghan mission then being undertaken by...

In the small rural community of Kamdesh, Nuristan province, US troops recently constructed a base that houses hundreds of troops, making it the first such outpost of its kind to be built in one of the most untamed areas of Afghanistan. The base at Kamdesh is dug into a rugged mountain side that backs up to a sheer mountain side; prime real estate in the insurgent saturated northeast. Serving as an extension of forward operating base Naray, which lies due south in Kunar province, Kamdesh aims to reach further into the northern areas, namely Nuristan, to help the locals with...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Coalition soldiers tracked a group of militants to an eastern Afghanistan safe house and killed 14 in an attack on the compound, the military said. The insurgents were seen carrying AK-47 submachine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to a compound in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, a coalition statement said. "The extremists were observed hiding and then coalition forces attacked them once they reached their safe house, destroying two buildings in the compound," the statement said. The statement said soldiers discovered the bodies of 14 fighters inside the compound. The coalition gave no details on the nationality...