Marines pushed deeper into Taliban strongholds today after suffering the first fatality of their massive offensive against Afghanistan's hardline Islamist militia. Marines are on the ground in Helmand province's districts of Garmsir and Nawa, and have helped Afghan forces take Khanishin, towards the border with Pakistan.

A missing U.S. Soldier has been sold to a militant clan, a U.S. military official said. The unidentified senior military official told CNN the Soldier, whose name was not released, was captured and then sold to a group led by the infamous warlord Siraj Haqqani.

Marines took Afghan insurgents by surprise early Thursday morning when they dropped behind their lines to hit them as part of the just-launched major operation against Taliban fighters. Helicopters carried hundreds of Marines into the village of Nawa, some 20 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, in a region where no U.S. or other NATO troops have operated in large numbers.