A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote US base killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 in the deadliest attack on US forces in Afghanistan in three years.
The attack came the same day a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol killed 24 people, including 19 civilians, while US coalition and Afghan soldiers killed 40 militants elsewhere in the south.
The militant assault on the American troops began at around 4.30am in a dangerous region close to the Pakistan border.
Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the mountainous north-eastern province of Kunar, Nato's International Security Assistance Force said.