Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan's Helmand province last week.

Some 15,000 American, British and Afghan troops were involved in Operation Moshtarak ("Together"), the largest assault since the invasion in 2001.

Allied forces launched a major offensive on key Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan's Helmand province last week. Some 15,000 American, British and Afghan troops were involved in Operation Moshtarak ("Together"), the largest assault since the invasion in 2001. They met only sporadic resistance as they occupied the Taliban-controlled district around Marjah, a hub of the drug-trafficking trade. Most of the insurgents appeared to have scattered before the onslaught, which was strongly trailed in advance, though one British soldier and a US marine were killed. Twelve Afghan civilians died when an American missile hit a house outside Marjah; officials said that Taliban fighters had been using the civilians as a "human shield"
It was revealed this week that the Taliban's top military commander had been arrested in Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Clhani Baradar - second in command to Mullah Omar, the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban - was captured earlier this month in Karachi, in a secret raid jointly orchestrated by the CIA and Pakistani security forces.
If all goes well, Operation Moshtarak could "mark the beginning of the end of the insurgency", said The SundayTimes. Warning the Taliban in advance might seem a strange tactic - "the danger is that enemies who melt away today will be back tomorrow". But the aim is not to crush the insurgents: it is to win over the local people. Once the area has been cleared, Afghan government officials will be installed, and roads and water pipes will be built. The US commander. General Stanley McChrystal, plans to "secure a 200-mile stretch of land up to the border with Pakistan, with the aim of forcing the Taliban to negotiate".
This is wishful thinking, said The Guardian.The exact same strategy has been used again and again in Helmand, with the Taliban generally regaining control as soon as Nato's attention drifts. Far more encouraging is the capture of Mullah Baradar, because it suggests that Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, is co-operating as never before with the US. The ISI helped to create the Taliban, and still has excellent links to its leaders. With the ISPs assistance, it might be possible to convince the Taliban to begin peace talks. "Without that, they could fight on for years."

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Operation Moshtarak is bound to fail, said Patrick Cock burn in The Independent on Sunday. I he new strategy's basic flaw was spelled out by the US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, in memos that were leaked last year: it relies on transferring power to the Afghan state, when the Afghan state "has neither the will nor the ability to provide security, justice, education and infrastructure". "Establishing them requires trained and honest Afghan officials," said Eikenberry. "That cadre of Afghan civilians docs not exist and would take years to build." The process certainly won't be easy, said Michael Williams in The Guardian. But the current policy is vastly preferable to Nato's earlier efforts - which were focused on "killing the terrorists". With careful foreign supervision, providing security and services should be possible. "Operation Moshtarak is the first step that will allow us one day to walk away responsibly."

The arrest in Karachi could speed up the process, said Tom Coghlan in The Times. If the ISI really has turned against the Taliban, whose Pakistani offshoot has been fighting a vicious war against the government, the effects will be seismic. Defeating a Taliban with safe havens in Pakistan is "highly unlikely. Without them it becomes a distinct possibility." Sadly, it is more probable that the move is mere window dressing. After all, the Afghan Taliban's "entire train-and-command structure is openly based in Quetta, inside Pakistan", and the Pakistanis have not moved against that. It is possible that the US, which has given Islamabad $8bn in aid since 2001, presented "overwhelming evidence of Baradar's location and demanded action".

Washington may have hoped that Baradar would act as a direct line to the Taliban, said Syed Saleem Shahzad in Asia Times Online (Hong Kong). But that is unlikely. "As a result of the Taliban's strict code, once a powerful commander is apprehended, his influence is reduced to zero" - and the leadership usually will not communicate with him. Even so, the arrest could bring "limited benefits" if Baradar reveals the whereabouts of other leaders.

British forces which captured Showal, a Taliban stronghold near Marjah, are expecting "retaliatory attacks in response to the publicity over the capture of the town", says Thomas Harding in The Daily Telegraph. Both sides are fighting a war of perception, and the Taliban are "likely to be incensed" by TV broadcasts and photos of their white flag being thrown off a disused crane and replaced by the Afghan national flag. "The media success story might increase the threat to us, as the Taliban will want to make the whole media thing look like a sham," says Major Shon Hackney of the Royal Welsh, who are holding the town. "They will counter with some sort of PR stunt."