France shocked by Afghan deaths

By James Mackenzie

PARIS (Reuters) - France reacted in shock on Wednesday to the death of 10 of its soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan and questions began to be asked about the country's worst military loss in 25 years.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to Kabul on Tuesday, said France was committed to its engagement in Afghanistan where it took part in the 2001 invasion to topple the Taliban.

But the opposition Socialists called for a parliamentary committee to meet and doubts were expressed about the official account of the incident in which the 10 soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in a fierce mountain battle.

"Afghanistan -- should we leave?" ran the front-page headline of the Thursday edition of left-wing newspaper Liberation, which is strongly critical of Sarkozy's policies.

The daily Le Monde quoted an unidentified French soldier wounded in the ambush who said there had been communications breakdowns and long delays in relieving the outnumbered patrol.

It also said some soldiers had been hit by the allied air strikes called in to help them.

The Pentagon said there had been no reports of soldiers killed by close air support and the head of the French general staff denied on Tuesday there had been any major tactical errors made by the patrol.

But families of some of the men, whose bodies arrived in Paris on Wednesday night, reacted bitterly.