French troops killed by Taliban

Ten French soldiers serving in Afghanistan with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force were killed earlier this week in a two-day running battle with the Taliban 40 miles east of the country's capital Kabul.

The troops, mostly from France's 8th parachute regiment, were on a joint patrol with Afghan army forces. They were ambushed on Monday afternoon at a bottleneck on the road linking Kabul with Jalalabad.

Fighting continued throughout the night and into the next day, and saw the French call in air strikes to repel the sustained attack. According to Afghan sources, four of the French soldiers were executed after being taken captive by the Taliban.

The French paras, who only recently arrived in the country, also sustained 21 casualties; Afghan army losses were three casualties, while dozens of Taliban fighters were killed.

French public opinion will be shocked by the deaths, the worst single loss of life for their army in more than two decades. President Nicolas Sarkozy's policy towards Afghanistan is far more hawkish then his predecessor Jacques Chirac's, and Sarkozy will travel to Afghanistan today.

The attacks form part of a Taliban resurgence outside of their traditional heartland of the south of the country. In Khost province, ten suicide bombers were killed as they attemtped to attack targets to wreck celebrations yesterday for Afghanistan's independence day.