The U.S.-led push to confront militants and win over local Afghan tribal leaders in the Taliban-controlled areas continues, with troops moving into more remote villages in one of the nation's mountainous regions in the south.

Some 4,000 U.S. Marines, fighting alongside several hundred newly-trained Afghan security forces, are taking up positions in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province - a remote militant stronghold that has largely resisted control from the centralized government in Kabul.

Troops reportedly met only isolated pockets of resistance as they set up outposts and sought out local civilian leaders. The operation is aimed at cutting off Taliban supply lines, winning over locals who are sympathetic to the militants and maintaining security for the August presidential elections.  In reaching out to occupants of the Afghan region, coalition troops are following a similar path to the counter-insurgency plan executed with great success in Iraq.

Nonetheless, American military officials confrim that one Marine has been killed and several others wounded in the offensive.

In eastern Afghanistan, U.S. officials say the military is using all available resources to find an American soldier believed to have been captured by militants in Paktika province on Tuesday.

The offensive in the south marks the first major operation under U.S. President Barack Obama's revamped strategy to defeat an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan has re-deployed some of its troops to the border with Afghanistan to stop insurgents who may be fleeing the offensive in Helmand province.

Courtesy of Wikinews.