‘The Taleban are defeated,’ said the general. Now the battle is on to win support of the villagers

LINES of young men and boys sat squatting at the edges of their fields yesterday as wave after wave of helicopters swooped and banked over their mud-walled homes. Afghan transport helicopters were flanked by US Apache gunships as they carved gut-wrenching slaloms over Nad-e Ali’s opium farms.

The pilots swerved hard and landed heavily. The spectators seemed to enjoy the show.

It was day two of Operation Moshtarak, a massive Nato and Afghan offensive to clear the Taleban from their largest Helmand stronghold, but most of the fighting is already over

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