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Lashkar Gah: Missions by special forces and air strikes by unmanned drones have "decapitated" the Taliban and brought the war in Afghanistan to a "tipping point", the commander of British forces has said.
The new "precise, surgical" tactics have killed scores of insurgent leaders and made it extremely difficult for Pakistan-based Taliban leaders to prosecute the campaign, according to Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith.
In the last two years an estimated 7,000 Taliban have been killed, the majority in southern and eastern Afghanistan. But it is the "very effective targeted decapitation operations" that have removed "several echelons of commanders" that have left the insurgents on the brink of defeat, the head of Task Force Helmand said.
"The Taliban are much weaker," he said from 16 Air Assault Brigade headquarters in Lashkar Gah.
"The tide is clearly ebbing not flowing for them. Their chain of command is disrupted and they are short of weapons and ammunition."
Mismanagement
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai told an Indian news channel that international forces in Afghanistan have mismanaged the fight against the Taliban, leading to a rise in violence, and now risk losing people's goodwill.
Karzai has often criticised the Western conduct of the war in Afghanistan, saying civilian casualties must stop.
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