US and Afghan forces have launched an assault against a group of Taliban in eastern Afghanistan following one of the deadliest days for US troops since the war began. On Saturday morning, 300 guerrilla fighters attacked a US outpost near the Pakistan border. During a day-long clash, eight US troops and two Afghan police officers died. A number of Afghan police officers are missing and feared captured. The attack occurred at an outpost that US commanders had been planning to abandon as part of a new strategy to withdraw from sparsely populated areas where the United States lacks the troops to expel Taliban forces.