In the bloodiest fighting in almost a year, US Marines have killed more than 80 insurgents in an attack on a Taliban stronghold in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, the military said.
A spokesman insisted the three-week-old offensive was a victory that will help secure fall elections -- rather than a sign of the resilience of Taliban-led militants.
"The Marines have been aggressive, relentless and successful," US military spokesman Lieutenant-colonel Tucker Mansager said Saturday.
"They have demonstrated that there is no refuge for the terrorists," he said.
Only two Marines have been wounded in the latest fighting, the US military said.
Commanders sent 2,000 Marines into Afghanistan in the spring, helping swell the US-dominated force to 20,000 -- its largest yet -- in an attempt to put rebels on the defensive ahead of September elections.
Militants have stepped up their own operations, feeding a spiral of violence that has left more than 450 people dead across the country this year.
Troops elsewhere in the country also had come under rocket and mortar fire several times in recent days but suffered no casualties, Mansager said.
In another operation, US troops on Friday detained an expert bomb maker about 40 miles south of Kabul, Mansager said. He described the suspect as a "medium-value target" but declined to give more details. The American military and international peacekeepers based in Kabul have been warning since last year that militants are increasingly using the kind of roadside bombs that have proved so deadly in Iraq.
Seven American forces have been killed in southern Afghanistan since early last month -- including four when a mine ripped through their Humvee -- and dozens of Afghan soldiers have died in the region this year.
The Marines are based in Uruzgan, the home province of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and have called in warplanes to pound a large group of militants in nearby mountains.
Most of the fighting has been near Daychopan, in neighboring Zabul province, a rerun of clashes last summer that left more than 100 militants and one American special operations soldier dead.
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