Major US offensive: US soldiers shaking hands with an Afghan child during patrols in Garmsir district in Afghanistan's Helmand province yesterday.

CAMP LEATHERNECK (News agencies) - Taliban insurgents stepped up attacks yesterday against US Marines in southern Afghanistan's Helmand River Valley, forcing troops in some areas to spend the day fighting instead of carrying out plans to meet with residents and local leaders.The stiffest resistance occurred in the district of Garmser

, where Taliban insurgents holed up in a walled housing compound engaged in an eight-hour gun battle with troops from the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment. The Marines eventually requested a Harrier fighter jet to drop a 500-pound bomb on the compound, which was believed to have killed all fighters inside.Also yesterday, Taliban insurgents fired rockets and mortars at a US coalition base in eastern Afghanistan, killing two American troops and wounding several more in a two-hour battle, officials said.During the clash, which ended only after US forces called in airstrikes, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck towards the base's gates. It blew up when American troops fired on it.More than 30 insurgents were killed in the battle in Zerok district of Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawakq, the provincial governor spokesman. Seven US and two Afghan troops were wounded, a US military spokesman said.The multi-pronged attack near the Pakistan border is hundreds of miles from the massive Marine assault in southern Afghanistan and underscores the militants' ability to inflict casualties on the over-stretched US forces as they widen their battle against the Taliban, who have made a violent comeback following their initial defeat in the American-led 2001 invasion.Responding to the deteriorating security situation, US President Barack Obama's administration has ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and expects the total number of US forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.Meanwhile, in Peshawar, clashes between tribesmen and Taliban insurgents left 16 people dead in Pakistan's northwest yesterday, officials said, in the latest violence between pro-government tribal militias and insurgents.The Taliban said it shot down a helicopter that crashed on Friday in the northwest, killing 26 government troops. The government blamed it on a technical problem.The fighting between tribesmen and insurgents took place in remote Mohmand region, part of the lawless tribal belt along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, killing 12 tribal militiamen and four insurgents.Islamabad has encouraged local tribesmen in the semiautonomous frontier areas to establish militias - known as lashkars - to flush out Taliban insurgents blamed for attacks in Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan.Such groups have been set up in several regions, but face stiff Taliban resistance.yesterday's clash was the first major fighting in months between tribesmen and insurgents in the Mohmand tribal region. Tribal elders have begun to clear the area of insurgents after receiving a warning from the military that it would be forced to send in troops if the tribesmen failed to either kill or evict the insurgents.Dozens of insurgents attacked the tribesmen after receiving a warning from a council of tribal elders to leave the area, the official said."The fighting between tribesmen and Taliban began yesterday, and so far 16 people, including 12 tribesmen and four Taliban, have died," a local government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.Local security officials confirmed the clashes and the death toll.