Afghan and U.S. troops overrun three southern Taliban hideouts,

QALAT, Afghanistan -- Afghan and U.S. troops overran three suspected Taliban positions and pinned down fighters in a cave today as fighting raged on in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and an Afghan commander said.

American bombing echoed through the mountains as the troops tried to root out hundreds of Taliban holdouts who have offered fierce resistance for the past week.

Coalition forces clashed with numerous groups of five to 10 fighters firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said.

The troops had cornered a group of insurgents in a cave and were attacking it this afternoon using small arms fire, artillery and air support.

There were no reported coalition casualties in the latest fighting in Zabul province's Dai Chupan district, Davis said. He had no details on Taliban casualties.

U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships hammered Taliban positions around Sairo Gar mountain before dawn. When Afghan troops moved in later, they found the Taliban had abandoned three positions, leaving behind bedding and turbans, said Gen. Haji Saifullah Khan, the main Afghan commander in the battle area.

But Taliban fighters were hunkering down elsewhere in mountain's many gorges. "It provides very excellent shelter against bombing," said Khan, who spoke to The Associated Press by satellite phone from the front lines.

The U.S. military has been involved in the fighting since it began about eight days ago. Since Saturday, they have dubbed their role in the battle as "Operation Mountain Viper."

The military said U.S. special operations forces and soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division were involved along with close air support. The military would not say how many U.S. soldiers were involved in the fighting, though Afghan officials have put the number at several hundred.

"As a result of the offensive, several anti-coalition elements have fled the area making them more vulnerable to attack," Davis said in a statement from Bagram Air Base, the coalition headquarters in Afghanistan.

One American soldier died Friday when he fell during a night combat mission. Two other U.S. soldiers died in a 90-minute gunbattle Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. Four suspected Taliban were killed in that fighting.

Those deaths bring to 35 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan, in addition to 162 that have been wounded, according to the U.S. military.

Afghan presidential spokesman Jawid Luddin said that more than 500 troops of the fledgling Afghan national army had been deployed in Zabul. So far, most of the fighting on the government side has been done by provincial militia forces.

Insurgents have meanwhile been carrying out a series of attacks near the mountain battle, mainly on Afghan soldiers, apparently intended to distract government forces from the main battle, said provincial intelligence chief Khalil Hotak.

Today, two suspected Taliban opened fire on a doctor at a government hospital in the Zabul provincial capital Qalat, killing the doctor's brother, police chief Mohammed Ayub Khan said. The doctor escaped unharmed. Police arrested one of the assailants while the other fled, he said.

Suspected insurgents attacked a group of Afghan soldiers protecting the Kabul-Kandahar road in Shajoi -- near the main fighting -- on Monday and killed four soldiers, Hotak told The Associated Press from a command center in Qalat.

On Sunday, rebels attacked an Afghan checkpoint in Shajoi, killing four soldiers and abducting two others.

Dozens of suspected Taliban have been killed in the ongoing battle in Zabul province. U.S. military spokesman Rodney Davis said at least 37 insurgents had been killed in direct combat or air strikes. Afghan officials have put the toll much higher.

On Monday, a provincial religious leader, Mulvi Abdul Rahman, told AP that he had spoken to tribal elders in the area and asked them to pass along an offer on behalf of the Zabul governor to the Taliban: Lay down your weapons and we will allow you to return home.

Rahman said he had not received a response, but that negotiations to end the battle peacefully where ongoing.

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