Taliban Shows Fresh Fangs in US Base Attack

The Taliban demonstrated complex tactics and a renewed taste for conventional warfare in the attack on a remote outpost that claimed the lives of nine US soldiers yesterday, Reuters reports. The militants drove the residents from a nearby village and used it as a base of operations from which to launch their offensive, which briefly breached the outpost’s defenses.

Having suffered heavy casualties in a wave of failed attacks on NATO bases in 2006, the Taliban has since focused more on suicide and roadside bombs. However, commanders worry that the group will grow increasingly audacious now that it has secured a foothold in neighboring Pakistan through truces with the government. (More Taliban stories.)