British troops expand major Afghan operation

SCATTERED CLASHES

Large areas of Helmand have been outside government control for many years. It produces more than half of Afghanistan's opium crop, which accounts for 90 percent of the world's heroin. The opium trade is a major source of funding for the Taliban.

Scattered clashes were reported on Friday as the Marines fanned out through towns and mud-brick villages in the Helmand River valley, a crescent of opium poppy and wheat fields criss-crossed by canals.

Most of the fighting was around the town of Garmsir, where a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan said there had been an engagement between Marines and insurgents. There was no information about casualties on either side.

One Marine was killed and several wounded on Thursday. An Afghan man was shot and wounded when he repeatedly ignored warnings to stop as he approached Marines in Garmsir on Thursday, the military said in a statement.

Elsewhere in Helmand, the Marines were accompanied by "civilian stability advisers" and were meeting local community leaders, spokesman Captain Bill Pelletier said.

"What this is doing is starting to transition from the clearing operation to the holding part, our Marines are going to stay there and continue to provide security," he said.

Pelletier said most resistance so far consisted of groups of two or three insurgent fighters.

"As soon as our resources were brought to bear on them they would break contact and run away," he said. "We're not taking anything for granted, the enemy will resist."

Such a bold operation carries great risk because a protracted, bloody fight could erode support for the war in the United States, among its NATO allies and Afghans.