Taliban say have hoisted flag after battle with U.S.

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters said on Wednesday they had hoisted their flag over a remote district of Afghanistan, four days after inflicting the worst battlefield casualties on U.S. troops in more than a year in an attack there.

U.S. forces denied they had left the area, although they said they will leave eventually under plans announced before the attack.

On their website, www.shahamat.org, the Taliban said they had raised their flag in Kamdesh district of Nuristan province on Wednesday morning at a function attended by locals.

Hundreds of fighters attempted to storm two remote U.S. outposts in the mountainous district along the Pakistani border on Saturday. Eight U.S. soldiers and at least two Afghan troops died defending the outposts in a day-long fire fight.

U.S. forces have since said they killed more than 100 fighters in the battle.

The fight showed the tactical risks U.S. troops may face in carrying out a new strategy ordered by their commander, General Stanley McChrystal, who is moving forces out of remote areas like Nuristan and into more populated locations.

In the past, when U.S. troops have left hard-fought areas, the Taliban have launched attacks to show strength and lay claim to them.

Colonel Wayne Shanks, a senior press officer for U.S. and NATO-led forces, said the withdrawal from the area was still planned but had not taken place yet.

"I can guarantee you we have not left Nuristan. We are there. We are doing the same operations we have been doing."

He said there were still U.S. forces present in the two outposts that had been attacked on Saturday, although they would be abandoned eventually. He said he could not comment on whether forces had been reduced at any specific location because that could help fighters find areas of weakness to attack.

This year has already become by far the deadliest year for Western troops of the war, which began exactly eight years ago. More than 400 Western troops have died so far this year, more than in the entire period from 2001-05.

There are now more than 100,000 Western troops serving in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them American. McChrystal has submitted a request for tens of thousands more, arguing that without them he cannot implement his new strategy and the war will probably be lost.

(Additional reporting and writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)