MARJAH, Afghanistan (Dispatches) – U.S. and Afghan forces traded gunfire with insurgents shooting from haystacks in poppy fields in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah as they pressed ahead in NATO's assault (Operation Mushtarak) on the militants' heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Hoping to avoid prolonged gun battles, Marines called for long-range artillery support to disperse sniper squads harassing their advance into the town. For the first time since the offensive started Saturday, U.S. forces fired the non-lethal artillery ""smoke shells"" in a bid to intimidate enemy fighters who also lobbed rockets and mortars at them.
As heavy fighting in the insurgent stronghold of Marja carried into its fourth day, the number of Taliban fighters in the area has dropped by about half, American and Afghan commanders said Monday.
About a quarter of the 400 Taliban fighters estimated to be in Marja when the Afghan-American operation began early Saturday have been killed, officers said. A similar number of Taliban appear to have fled the area, including most of the leaders, and local Afghans were offering help ferreting out Taliban fighters and hidden bombs, they said.
But intense fighting on the ground through much of the day indicated that there were plenty of Taliban insurgents with fight left in them.
Some of the American and Afghan commanders said that they hoped to complete the combat phase of the operation within three or four days.
Casualties
According to AP report quoting NATO officials three more Afghan civilians were killed in the assault, highlighting the toll on the population. The deaths – in three separate incidents – come after two errant U.S. missiles struck a house on the outskirts of Marjah on Sunday killing 12 people, half of them children.
The heavy civilian toll highlighted the stressful and confusing nature of the fighting, especially in Marja, and of the difficulties inherent in conducting military operations in a guerrilla war, where insurgents can hide easily among the population.
Some American officers said they suspected some fighters — especially the local ones — probably just decided not to fight. That is part of the nature of a war like this: if guerrillas decide to stay home, they are unlikely to be discovered. Which means, of course, that they can fight again.
As for the other fleeing insurgents, there were plenty of places for them to go. Of Helmand Province’s 13 districts, at least 3 are not under government control. And some reports had insurgents fleeing to Pakistan, where the Taliban’s top leadership resides.
Baradar’s arrest denied
ISLAMABAD (Dawn) -- Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday branded as “propaganda” reports that the top Taliban military commander had been arrested in a joint Pakistani-U.S. spy operation.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament in Islamabad, the cabinet minister stopped short of either confirming or denying the media reports.
The New York Times and other U.S. media cited U.S. government officials as saying that U.S. and Pakistani intelligence services arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi “several days ago”.
“We are verifying all those we have arrested. If there is any big target, I will show the nation,” Malik said.
“If the New York Times gives information, it is not a divine truth, it can be wrong. We have joint intelligence sharing and no joint investigation, nor joint raids,” Malik added.
“We are a sovereign state and hence will not allow anybody to come and do any operation. And we will not allow that. So this (report) is propaganda,” he added.
Pakistan's government is a close U.S. ally in the war on Al-Qaeda and the eight-year conflict against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, but the relationship is controversial in an increasingly anti-American country.
Photo: American Marines walked through the town of Marja on Monday as they continued their offensive in the former Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province. (Photo: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)