KABUL — A US soldier was killed and two others were wounded Tuesday in fighting at the heart of a Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan, the US military said.

The death took place in Marjah, Helmand province, where American Special Operations forces have been trying to help the Afghan military fend off the repeated fierce Taliban offensive that has claimed several districts over the past few months.

The US casualties came during a push by Afghan and US soldiers to clear territory between Marjah and the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, according to Afghan military officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press.

Later, Afghan and US officials said a US helicopter went down in the area, but they differed on the details.

In Washington, US officials confirmed that a medical evacuation helicopter that had been sent to Marjah to help the wounded soldiers was damaged when its rotors struck the wall of a compound there. It was unclear whether the wounded soldiers had yet been evacuated.

But one Afghan military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, said a US troop transport helicopter went down in enemy territory because of a mechanical problem, and that the casualties came afterward. There were no further details or confirming accounts.

The United States and NATO pulled all combat forces from Helmand in the spring of 2014, and combat operations by the coalition were scheduled to end by Dec. 31 that year.

The mission of US forces in Afghanistan was to remain in a training and advising role, for the most part. But as the Taliban have gained ground this year, Special Operations troops have been directly involved in the fighting, particularly in Helmand, according to senior Afghan officials and Western diplomats.

Marjah had been a longtime Taliban stronghold until a surge of US Marines took it back beginning in 2010, and until recently it was relatively quiet, even as northern parts of Helmand were besieged by the Taliban.

The death of the soldier Tuesday was believed to be the first confirmed US fatality in southern Afghanistan since the official end of combat operations in 2014, and the first confirmed fatality of 2016.

New York Times