NOW ZAD, Afghanistan — Missiles, machine guns and strafing runs from fighter jets destroyed much of a Taliban compound in Now Zad, but the insurgents had a final surprise for some Hawai'i Marines who pushed into the smoldering building just before nightfall.

As two of the men walked up an alley, the Taliban opened fire from less than 15 yards, sending bullets and tracer fire crackling inches past them. They fled under covering fire from their comrades, who hurled grenades at the enemy position before sprinting to their armored vehicles.

The assault capped a day of fighting Saturday in the poppy fields, orchards and walled compounds of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province between the Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment out of Kane'ohe Bay, and well-dug-in Taliban fighters.

The enemy earlier had opened up with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine-gun fire and rockets from the orchards or inside walled compounds.

About 1,000 of the Hawai'i Marines arrived in Helmand and Farah provinces in late May, part of a surge of 21,000 extra U.S. troops ordered to an increasingly restive Afghanistan by President Obama.

The deployment marked what will likely be a return to steady duty in the country for Kane'ohe Bay's infantry battalions, which for several years had deployed in rotating order to Iraq.

Kane'ohe Bay's 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, is training for a likely fall deployment to Afghanistan, while the 3rd Battalion is in Iraq.

The Saturday firefight was a taste of what is expected to be a bloody summer as Washington tries to turn around a bogged-down, eight-year-old war.

"This was the first time we pushed this far. I guess they don't like us coming into their back door," said Staff Sgt. Luke Medlin, who was sweeping the alley for booby traps as Marine gunner John Daly covered him from behind when the Taliban struck.

"And now they know we will be back," said Medlin, from Indiana.

A record 56,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, alongside 32,000 NATO-led forces. Lance Cpl. Joshua R. Whittle, a 20-year-old Hawai'i Marine with the 2nd Battalion, was killed on June 6. His family in California said he stepped on a landmine.

The unrest in Now Zad symbolizes in many ways what went wrong in Afghanistan and the enormous challenges facing the United States. Helmand province is a center of the insurgency — and the opium poppy trade that helps fund it.

'A BAD SITUATION'

Like much of Afghanistan, Now Zad and the surrounding area were largely peaceful after the 2001 invasion. The United Nations and other Western-funded agencies sent staff to build wells and health clinics.

But in 2006 — with American attention focused on Iraq — the insurgency stepped up in the south. Almost all the city's 35,000 people fled, along with the aid workers.

Lt. Col. Patrick J. Cashman, the 2nd Battalion commander, said in a June 16 letter back to Hawai'i families that Golf Company "has been working overtime both to keep the enemy in the area off balance, while also finding local partners in some of the villages in the region who are willing to work with us to restore the people of Now Zad to their homes."

The British and Estonian troops previously garrisoned in Now Zad were unable to defeat the insurgents. They were replaced last year by U.S. Marines, who live in a base in the center of the deserted town and on two hills overlooking it.

The Taliban hold much of the northern outskirts and the orchards beyond, where they have entrenched defensive positions, tunnels and bunkers.

The Marines outnumber the Taliban in the area by at least 3-to-1 and have vastly superior weapons but avoid offensive operations because they lack the manpower to hold territory once they take it.

"We don't have the people to backfill us. Why clear something that we cannot hold?" said Cashman, whose "area of operation" also includes Bakwa and Golestan in a region that is deep mountain valleys to the north and predominately flat desert and dry river beds to the south.

Some 10,000 Marines total are slowly spreading out in the region in the first wave of a troop surge intended to stamp out an insurgency that has a strong hold in the world's main opium-poppy growing region. The Afghan government said it controls only eight of the province's 13 districts.

Cashman said the Marines did not intend to allow the Taliban free rein in parts of Now Zad, but was unable to give any specific plans or time frame for addressing what he acknowledged is "a bad situation."

HOURS OF FIGHTING

Saturday's mission was aimed at gathering intelligence and drawing a response from enemy positions close to a street called "Pakistani alley" because of one-time reports suggesting fighters from across the border had dug in there.

"We're bait," one Marine said as the convoy of five vehicles left the base at 8 a.m. and trundled north.

It quickly came across a roadside bomb — the kind that killed Whittle on June 6 and has wounded at least seven others in the four weeks since the company has been stationed here.

An engineer was dispatched and came back an hour later carrying the parts of the bomb — two 82 mm mortar shells attached to a pressure plate.

The vehicles were heading to inspect a suspected tunnel when the Taliban struck, firing mortar rounds that landed close by. Machine gunners atop the vehicles and troops in an open-sided truck scanned the scene for plumes from weapons fire.

"We're taking fire from both sides here!" Lance Cpl. James Yon yelled.

"Hit 'em, Yon!" came the call from below.

Hours of fire exchanges followed, with the Taliban firing mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and rockets.

A mortar round punctured the tire of a Humvee; a grenade swooshed just over a troop truck.

"That was close," Daly said. "If they were a better shot, we'd be canceling Christmas."

Each time the insurgents attacked, the Marines returned fire if they could spot their foes or radioed in coordinates for air strikes.

"Bombs are away," a voice crackled over the radio as Dutch fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on a compound, sending clouds of dust mushrooming into the air. The planes then strafed the position, leaving a line of fire and destruction 50 yards long.

Other times, mortar teams back at the base in Now Zad pummeled enemy positions.

The Marines left their vehicles twice. Each time, they came under attack as they entered mazelike, high-walled compounds with ill-fitting, aging wooden doors and small windows, ideal for sniper positions.

In the late afternoon, U.S. forces fired two missiles from 55 miles away to hit a compound being used by the attackers. Minutes later, Marine Harrier jets strafed the compound, setting fire to a wheat field outside it but sparing a poppy patch — an irony not lost on the troops.

SENDING A MESSAGE

The Marines got their final close call as they assessed the compound for damage.

After blowing a hole through the wall, Medlin and Daly were met by a hail of bullets as they pressed up an alley.

"Gunner, are you good? You need to come back!" one Marine shouted into the gathering gloom. "I'll cover you!"

The two men leapt to safety. Daly sprained his ankle as he leapt from a wall, but that was the only Marine injury.

Twenty minutes after the troops withdrew, two Cobra helicopters fired a Hellfire missile that streaked at a 45-degree angle across the night sky into the building, then bombed and strafed it, igniting a blaze.

"Payback time," one Marine muttered in the dark of a truck; cheers erupted in another vehicle.

There were no confirmed Taliban casualties, but observers later spotted a funeral, and video images suggested others were killed in the aerial attacks.

Capt. Zachary Martin said such sustained contact sent the militants a message that they were not safe anywhere and bought the Marines — and the few civilians in the area — some "security space."

"We kicked the snot out of these guys," he told the Marines on their return to base, some 14 hours after they left.