The dire situation that already killed one United States soldier and wounded two others in the town of Marja, Afghanistan is still ongoing and, according to at least one U.S. official, has put more than a dozen American special operations soldiers and a helicopter crew in an extreme and deadly position, heading into Wednesday morning.

After securing the crash site of a U.S. chopper that went down earlier in the day, the American troops took cover in a nearby compound.

They are now engaged in a skirmish, surrounded by enemy fire from Taliban fighters.

This from FOX News:

“On the map there is one green dot representing friendly forces stuck in the compound, and around it is a sea of red [representing hostile forces],” the official told Fox News.

A U.S. military “quick reaction force” of reinforcements arrived late Tuesday and evacuated the U.S. special operations soldier killed in action, and the two wounded Americans in the compound, according to a U.S. defense official.

The crew of the disabled helicopter also evacuated safely, the official said.

The rest of the U.S. special operations team remain in the compound to secure the damaged HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter in an area surrounded by Taliban fighters.

An AC-130 gunship has been called in for air cover as the U.S. troops now wait out the night.

The Pentagon — who confirmed the firefight through a spokesman during the day Tuesday — have already compared the helicopter crash to the one that occurred during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in 2011.

UPDATE:

“All casualties have been evacuated,” said U.S. Army Colonel Mike Lawhorn.

Stay tuned to this blog for more on this developing story.