(CNN) -- Taliban resistance to a major U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan has been light and sporadic, consisting of intermittent small arms fire, the Marines said on Thursday.
"Indications are the militants break away shortly after they make contact," said Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe, referring to what is regarded as the Taliban's habit of running and hiding after troops confront them.
U.S. military officials said Thursday that one Marine had been killed and several others wounded in the push, called Operation Khanjar.
Earlier, a Taliban spokesman said the group's fighters had killed 33 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles. CNN could not independently verify the Taliban claims because of safety and access reasons.
The operation is targeting militants in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and poppy-growing region, and the forces are attempting to gain and hold ground in the perilous region.
Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, believes the operation will work and has assured the populace it will provide security for them. His spokesman also confirms that resistance so far has been minimal.
The assault has prompted Pakistani authorities to redeploy troops along the Afghan border to stop Taliban from escaping the push in Helmand, where more than 30 U.S., British and Danish troops have been killed since January, with the latest being a pair of British soldiers slain in Helmand on Wednesday.
About 1,000 Marines have been conducting helicopter and ground operations along several locations in the Helmand River valley, mainly in the Garmsir and Nawa areas.
They are part of an overall force of 4,000 American troops, mostly Marines. Several hundred Afghan security forces and British troops are also participating.
The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it follows a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said.
When President Barack Obama announced his strategy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said American soldiers and Marines "will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east, and give us a greater capacity to partner with Afghan security forces and to go after insurgents along the border."
He also said the bolstered deployment "will also help provide security" ahead of August presidential elections in Afghanistan. The Obama administration has moved about 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the original front in the war launched after the 9/11 attacks.
It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official told CNN the size and scope of the new operation are "very significant."
"It's not common for forces to operate at the brigade level," the official said. "In fact, they often only conduct missions at the platoon level. And they're going into the most troubled area of Afghanistan."
The defense official said the operation is a "tangible indication" of the new approach that McChrystal -- a former chief of the Pentagon's special operations command -- is bringing to the nearly eight-year-old war.
"They're not just doing an offensive push to get bad guys, they're going in to hold the area and stay there," the official said. "This approach is indicative of McChrystal's philosophy: measuring success by the number of Afghans protected, not bad guys killed."
During his confirmation hearing in June, McChrystal told senators that the conflict requires a new focus on counterinsurgency to reduce violence and build support for the U.S.-led NATO alliance among Afghans.
"Although I expect stiff fighting ahead, the measure of success will not be enemy killed. It will be shielding the Afghan population from violence," he said.
The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan before its allies in the al Qaeda terrorist network attacked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Though quickly toppled after the attacks, its leaders escaped and the movement regrouped in the Afghan countryside and across the border in Pakistan.
Helmand was once known as the breadbasket of Afghanistan, but the fertile land is now used for growing poppies. Afghanistan produces over 90 percent of the world's opium, with most of that coming from the poppies in Helmand.
The drug trade is an import source of income for the Taliban and major supply routes run through the province.
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