KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT

• Commanders should have done more to improve the base's defenses and to analyze intelligence reports that the enemy was planning a major assault.

• American outpost was in a place of "not tactical or strategic value."

• The soldiers fought courageously, with about 60 of them killing about 150 insurgents as they defended the base.

• It recommended that the squadron commander overseeing the outpost receive a letter of reprimand. Military officials said the brigade commander was given a letter of admonishment, a less severe punishment.

WHAT HAPPENED

About 6 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2009, insurgents attacked Combat Outpost Keating in the Kamdesh district of Nurestan Province, Afghanistan, from the surrounding high ground. The attackers were armed with detailed intelligence they'd collected on how the base operated and where its weapons, generator and barracks were.

After Afghan National Army soldiers "failed to hold their position," insurgents seized the police station and penetrated the outpost's perimeter. After U.S. air support finally arrived, U.S. forces were able to regain the initiative and retake control of the outpost.

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