 On December 5, 2006 the British Marines attacked a Taliban-held valley in southern Afghanistan near Garmsir but withdrew after a ferocious counterattack that withstood air strikes and artillery fire.Scores of soldiers ran across a bridge over the Helmand River under a full moon shortly before daybreak and began sweeping south through wheatfields in the south of the province, the opium center of the world's major producer.Marines initially faced only sporadic resistance but when they advanced, Taliban fighters launched a ferocious, organized riposte with heavy weapons and tried to outflank the British troops.