US Marines Push Deeper Into Southern Afghan Towns

NAWA, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan on Friday, meeting little resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest American military operation here since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

One Marine was killed and several others wounded on Thursday, when some 4,000 Marines launched the operation in Helmand province _ a remote area that is at the center of the country’s illegal opium cultivation, which helps finance the insurgency.

So far, however, there has been little resistance from the Taliban, according to a military spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier.

In the east, meanwhile, U.S. troops and personnel continued looking for an American soldier believed captured by insurgents on Tuesday, said Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, a U.S. military spokesman.

U.S. troops were brought in from nearby areas to help with the search, which included helicopters and Afghan Army support, officials said Thursday.