By Nick Allen

Bermel (Afghanistan), Dec 22 (DPA) As winter grips Afghanistan's mountainous border with Pakistan, US troops and Taliban and other insurgents are winding down after a year of fierce but inconclusive fighting in a barren swathe of Central Asia where everything has still to be won.

The first December snow brought a lull in the constant skirmishes, roadside bomb and suicide attacks and rocket strikes against the Bermel base by the border with Pakistan, where soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division will ship out next month after a gruelling 12-month tour.

"It's been tough," said Sergeant Chris Cowan, whose company fought numerous engagements since deploying last February as part of a 1,000-troop contingent at five bases in the eastern province of Paktika. "We try to do our job, do the right thing and get all the guys out alive."

More than two dozen soldiers suffered wounds and they are uniformly amazed that they lost only one man, Corporal Jeremiah Cole, who died in a landmine blast in August.

"In my platoon of 36 men we have five men who were shot in the head and they all survived, it's crazy," said Lt Sean Parnell.

Confirmed enemy losses around this one small forward operating base in 2006 are classified but thought to easily exceed 200 killed. In Paktika as a whole, three US troops were killed in action and 107 were wounded, officials say.

Bermel also has the dubious distinction of receiving the most rocket attacks of the five bases. More than 300 Chinese, Russian and even Italian-made projectiles fell in and around the camp this year, fired from nearby mountain tops and sending the troops racing into bunkers.

"Every time you are literally running for your life," said Cowan.

With sporadic clashes erupting in mountain passes and dry river beds more than 2,000 metres above sea level, these are not the more conventional ground battles being fought by British and Canadian forces in the desert areas of southern Afghanistan.

This is a festering guerrilla-style conflict in which the Taliban became highly adept at springing ambushes and using improvised explosive devices to harass convoys before melting away into the hills.

"They are very liquid," said Captain Scott Sinclair at the Orgun-e base, the centre of tactical operations in Paktika located by the town of Urgun. "When they see us starting to mass they pull back to the other side of the border."

While Pakistan's leadership stresses its commitment to the war on terror, US officers feel not enough is being done there to suppress the Taliban, and claim the insurgents sometimes even receive help from Pakistani units along the porous 2,500 km border.

"We don't really trust the Pakistani military too much," said Captain Jason Dye, the commander at Bermel.

Frustration is evident in the ranks.

"Why don't they fight us like men, line on line, it would all be over in five minutes," said infantryman Jose Cruz, 22, who was wounded three times around Urgun in a rocket attack, an IED blast and a suicide car-bombing aimed at his Humvee truck.

And although this country is where the war on terror began in 2001 after 9/11, the conflict in Iraq has pushed the Afghan campaign into the background.

"This is definitely the forgotten war," said Sergeant Jeffrey Hall. "Our unit has seen some heavy fighting but back in the US, no one knows we're here."