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Afghan officials claim that at least 36 Taliban fighters have died in fighting with coalition forces in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province.

Earlier Wednesday, NATO spokesperson Mark Laity talked of "a few minor contacts."

The Afghan Defence Ministry said coalition forces killed 20 Taliban in one village and 16 in another. Two Afghan soldiers were reported killed, with no Canadian or NATO casualties. In addition, the ministry said coalition forces had killed 12 more militants in Kandahar's Maywand district.

Reporters at the scene in Arghandab saw helicopters and jets above the battlefield, with smoke rising follow following exchanges of fire.

James Appathurai, a NATO spokesperson in Brussels, told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet that coalition forces "are methodically going through the area."

Afghans themselves are leading the operation, he said.

The Arghandab district of Kandahar province is just north of the provincial capital of Kandahar City. A group of Taliban, up to 500 in size, moved into the area on Monday. Residents have been fleeing in response.

"Frankly there can be insurgents anywhere in this province. It's a bit like finding a needle in a haystack," Brig.-Gen. Dennis Thompson, Canada's top commander in Afghanistan, told reporters in Arghandab on Wednesday.

"The insurgent presence in Arghandab district that has caused the reaction you see in front of you is largely on the west side of the (Arghandab) River from us," he said.

Alexander Panetta, a Canadian Press reporter in Afghanistan, told Canada AM that "you've got a battle that looks a little more like conventional warfare than a counterinsurgency."

Every time the Taliban takes on western armies in a stand-up fight like this, they lose, he said.

But the pomegranate groves provide good cover for the insurgents, he said.

Foreign affairs analyst Eric Margolis told Newsnet that Arghandab is strategically important because it controls access routes into Kandahar City about 15 kilometres to the west.

Taliban mistake?

On Tuesday, NATO and Canadian spokespersons were downplaying the possibility of an imminent conflict in Arghandab, even as Afghan National Army reinforcements were being flown in from Kabul.

Retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie told Canada AM that initial reports from battlefields "are always wrong."

He thought of this operation as a relatively small one and that the Taliban had made a mistake by frightening the local population into fleeing.

"In an insurgency, you want the local civilian population to be around you," he said.

The civilians can provide insurgents with protection against attack, along with things like food and intelligence, he said.

Having civilians move out exposes the Taliban to coalition attack, MacKenzie said.

Margolis said the Taliban's move into Arghandab, combined with the stunning attack last Friday on Sarposa Prison in Kandahar City, are more political than military victories.

"They were designed to show the weakness of the Afghan government ... and that NATO, despite the huffing and puffing of its generals, is not winning the war," he said.

Appathurai said the Taliban had a "good day" with the prison break, but is "having a pretty bad day today, and they're going to have a lot more bad days."

The general trend line in Afghanistan is heading in the right direction, he said.

In other news from Afghanistan, four British troops were reported killed in Helmand province on Tuesday. A fifth was injured but is in stable condition.

Britain's defence ministry said an explosion caused the casualties.

Helmand lies immediately to the west of Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,500 troops have been operating since early 2006.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press