U.S. pushes deeper into southern Afghan towns

FISNIK ABRASHI and JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Writers NAWA, Afghanistan

U.S. Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan today, meeting little resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest military operation here 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 that is at the center of the country's illegal opium cultivation, which helps finance the insurgency. So far,...