Residents of the southern Afghan town of Marjah have received their first food supplies since the start of a joint US-Afghan military operation against the Taliban in the area 11 days ago.
Afghan officials distributed bags of rice and tea in central Marjah, in southern Helmand province, on Tuesday, as sporadic fighting continued outside the city centre.
Nato forces launched the campaign, known as Operation Moshtarak, on February 13, in an effort to bring government control over southern Afghanistan. The US military has said Taliban resistance has begun to ease since the start of the offensive.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Helmand, said Afghan officials are the most "up-beat" they have been since the start of the operation.
"The (Helmand) governor believes the offensive stage of this offensive could be over soon. He's talking about opening an interim district center in this town by Thursday," our correspondent said.
Civilians killed
Elsewhere in Helmand at least eight people were killed and 12 others wounded in an explosion in the provincial capital on Tuesday.
Local authorities said all those killed in the attack in Lashkar Gah were civilians.
Our correspondent said the bomb was apparently planted on a bicycle, although it was not clear if it was a suicide attack.
"The bomb went off, we believe, outside the headquarters of the traffic police ... and close to the main bus stop that people queue at in order to take the bus from Helmand to Kandahar," he said.
Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, has blamed the Taliban for the attack.
"The Taliban have almost been defeated in Marjah, now they are taking their revenge big time on the people of Lashkar Gah," he told Al Jazeera, referring to the area where Nato and Afghan forces are carrying out a joint offensive against the Taliban.
Another blast in the northern city of Jalalabad, meanwhile, killed one person and injured five more on Tuesday.
'Taliban commander seized'
In other developments, the US media reported on Tuesday that yet another senior Afghan Taliban commander had been captured in Pakistan.
Mullah Abdul Kabir, a member of the group's so-called Quetta Shura, was picked up several days ago in Nowshera district in Pakistan's northwest, according to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that cited unnamed Pakistani security officials.
Pakistani officials declined to confirm the reports.
Last week, Pakistani and American officials said that Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader, the No 2 Afghan Taliban leader, had been caught 10 days earlier in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
Two other Taliban leaders - Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mohammad, respectively the "shadow governors" of Kunduz and Baghlan provinces - were arrested separately in Pakistan about 10 to 12 days ago, according to Mohammad Omar, the Kunduz governor.