DAHANEH, Afghanistan — U.S. aircraft and missiles pounded Taliban mountainside positions around Dahaneh yesterday as Hawai'i-based Marines pushed through mudbrick compounds searching for militants in the second day of fighting to seize this small but strategic southern village.

Also in the south, four NATO service members — three British and one American — were killed in separate explosions yesterday, military officials said.

August's casualty count is likely to surpass the record 75 deaths U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan suffered in July, the deadliest month for the international force in the nearly 8-year-old war. The violence comes as the Aug. 20 presidential election nears.

U.S. Marines launched a major assault Wednesday against Taliban forces in Dahaneh, a village of 2,000 people that controls major trade routes in the northern part of Helmand, a southern province that has become center stage in the war.

By last night, the Marines and Afghan troops had managed to take about half the village, according to the military.

As sporadic clashes continued in Dahaneh, Marine Cobra attack helicopters fired rockets at suspected Taliban positions in the nearby mountains.

Later, U.S. A-10 fighter-bombers fired multiple rounds into the barren, rocky cliffs overlooking what the Marines call "Hell's Pass," the entrance into the Now Zad valley, and U.S. surface-to-surface missiles, fired from the main Marine base, pounded the hillsides, according to Associated Press journalists traveling with the military.

In the village, Marines came under machine-gun fire as they moved through the streets and alleyways.

"It's coming at us 360 degrees, but we knew they'd try to surround us," said Cpl. Kilani Garber of Middleville, Mich., as the troops ducked for cover.

As they moved through parts of the village abandoned after their arrival, Marines kicked down or detonated the doors of several compounds from which, they alleged, insurgents had been firing during the opening day of the assault. In one compound, troops found empty Kalashnikov bullet casings and a few used heroin syringes.

"They want to fight, then they don't want to fight — we're getting mixed signals from these guys," said Cpl. Mack Williams, 22, from Spruce Pine, N.C., as his unit met yet another outburst of light-arms fire in the late afternoon.

At sunset, a Humvee mounted with a loudspeaker drove through village areas the Marines had cleared, broadcasting to residents in their Pashto language that they could register complaints and apply for compensation for damage sustained in the fighting.

About 400 Kane'ohe Bay Marines and 100 Afghan troops are taking part in the operation to take Dahaneh — the third major push by U.S. and British forces this summer into Taliban-controlled areas of Helmand. The province is the center of Afghanistan's lucrative opium business and the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Afghanistan war.