US Marines push deeper into southern Afghan towns

By By The Associated Press

Story Created: Jul 3, 2009 at 9:36 AM EST

Story Updated: Jul 3, 2009 at 9:36 AM EST

NAWA, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. Marines are moving into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan today, and they're meeting little resistance.

The Marines are trying to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

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

In the country's east today, the deputy governor of Paktia province says a roadside bomb has killed three Afghans and a foreigner working on a road construction project.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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