KABUL (Dispatches) — Taliban forces spearheading a spring offensive seized a remote town near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan Saturday as Afghan government forces retreated, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

After a week of intense fighting, hundreds of Taliban fighters overwhelmed local government forces, who said they were making a “tactical retreat” from Barg-e-Matal.
Taliban fighters seized control of Barg-e-Matal nearly a year after they briefly seized the isolated Nuristan district center last summer but were driven out by U.S. and Afghan forces.
This time, hundreds of Afghan fighters defending the town fled early Saturday morning when they began to run out of ammunition and supplies. The U.S.-led coalition provided limited air support and ran a few supply runs for the Afghan government forces, but didn't offer significant aid, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.
“We could not resist,” said Haji Mohammed Ismaile, a former Barg-e-Matal district governor, in a telephone interview with McClatchy as he joined hundreds of fleeing Afghan fighters. “There was no support from the government or the (international military) coalition.”
“We could hear them on the radio calling us to surrender and telling us that if we lay down our weapons they would not kill us,” said Ismaile. “But we did not surrender because they would slaughter us.”
The Taliban assault is the latest in the militants' expanding spring offensive on a number of fronts, while U.S.-led forces are trying to train Afghan forces and mounting an offensive in southern Afghanistan that some officials say lacks sufficient troops.
Ahmad Nader Nadery , a prominent member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission , said that the fall of Barg-e-Matal to the Taliban should be a cautionary lesson for Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal , the top allied military commander in Afghanistan , about relying on shaky Afghan forces to defend the country without outside help.
The Taliban advance came as a U.S. military investigation Saturday blamed “unprofessional” reporting from a Predator drone crew in Nevada for a missile attack that killed as many as 23 Afghan civilians last February in central Afghanistan . The report also faulted the forces for waiting 12 hours to report the mistaken attack.
McChrystal issued a quick public apology for the attack, and the military said the survivors had been given compensation and medical treatment. Although he's made limiting civilian casualties a top priority, there's been a dramatic spike in such deaths this year that coincides with the surge of U.S. forces heading to Afghanistan .
In the past two weeks, Taliban fighters have launched attacks on two of the biggest international military bases, near the capital of Kabul and near the southern city of Kandahar , and dispatched a deadly car bomber who killed 18 people, including four high-ranking NATO officers, in Kabul .
On Saturday in the Afghan capital, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside compound of Supreme Food Services, a well-known food supplier for the international military coalition. The bomber died, but no one else was hurt.
As Taliban fighters celebrated their border victory, leaders from Afghanistan's Nuristan province held emergency meetings to figure out how to retake the area quickly.
7 Afghan police killed
A roadside bomb struck a police patrol Sunday in the remote northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, killing seven officers said deputy provincial governor Shams-Ul Rahman Shams.
Separately a military commander said up to a dozen Taliban-linked militants, including their commander, were killed when NATO and Afghan troops backed by air support struck their sanctuaries in the northern Baghlan mountains.
The rebels had fled to the mountains following operations across Baghlan about a month ago, said Murad Ali Murad.
Page 1 Photo: Vehicles carrying supplies for NATO forces burn after an alleged attack by Taliban in Ghazni, Afghanistan, May 30, 2010. (Photo: AP/Rahamatullah Nakizad)
Page 3 Photo: U.S. Marine members check a crater after their anti-explosives squad team blew up a roadside bomb in Marjah, Helmand Province, April 1. A roadside bomb struck a police patrol Sunday, killing seven officers. (Photo: AFP/Mauricio Lima)