Kabul, July 16 (AP): US troops abandoned a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants killed nine of their comrades earlier this week, officials said today, as Nato launched artillery and helicopter strikes on insurgents in Pakistan.

The retreat is another indication of the growing strength of the Taliban-led insurgency and the struggle facing foreign and Afghan security forces strung out along the long mountainous border.

Underlining the precarious situation, Nato said it used artillery and helicopters to attack insurgents inside Pakistan after they fired multiple rockets into the eastern Paktika province yesterday.

Pakistan military assisted during the operation, officials said.

Meanwhile, insurgents temporarily seized the village of Wanat in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan where the US outpost was breached by militants on Sunday, Afghan officials said. It was the deadliest incident for the US military in Afghanistan in three years.

Omar Sami, spokesman for the Nuristan provincial governor, said American and Afghan soldiers quit the base yesterday afternoon.

The insurgents drove out the handful of police left behind to defend government offices in the village yesterday, but 50 more officers were deployed today and soon regained control, senior provincial police official Ghoolam Farouq said.

The militants had retreated into the mountains, and the situation was now peaceful as village elders had negotiated a truce between the two sides, Farouq said. Nato confirmed that the post, which lies amid precipitous mountains close to the Pakistan border, had been vacated while insisting that international and Afghan troops will “retain a strong presence in that area with patrolling and other means”.

“We can confirm that a temporary outpost which was established in the village of Wanat has been removed,” said Nato spokesman Mark Laity. “We will continue to patrol the village along with the Afghan National Army.” Asked whether the pullout was related to Sunday’s attack, Laity played down any link.

“Such posts are established and removed when they are not serving a purpose,” he said. Sunday’s assault, in which nine US troops were killed and 15 wounded, underlined how Islamic militants appear to be gaining strength nearly seven years after the ouster of the Taliban.

The retreat will be considered a victory by the insurgents, and comes after a spate of security setbacks for President Hamid Karzai’s government.