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 Brig Mark Carleton-Smith.

In the past 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'.

This in turn has left the insurgents on the brink of defeat, the head of Task Force Helmand said. ....