British troops were last night poised to smash through Taleban defences after surrounding Musa Qala, a scruffy bazaar town that for ten months has been the insurgent group’s crucial stronghold in Helmand Province.

As troops tightened the trap and helicopter gunships flew constant ground attack missions yesterday, the operation received a boost with the announcement that two senior Taleban commanders had been captured, possibly as they were trying to escape.

The operation is one of the biggest against the Taleban since the invasion in 2001. It was launched after weeks of air strikes and probing attacks had softened up their defences and killed hundreds of their fighters.

About 3,000 British personnel were involved in Operation Mar Kardad, including infantry, armoured vehicles, artillery and logistics – nearly half the entire British force in Afghanistan.

Strenuous efforts have also been made to persuade Taleban commanders to defect to the government side when the time is right. Nato hopes that may be imminent.

The final push into the town, which may involve house-to-house fighting, will be made by Afghan National Army (ANA) troops supported by British infantry in the next few days. A Nato spokesman said that they would make a push after a British battle group had “kicked in the door” to Musa Qala. The ANA’s role was its first in a big combat operation and Nato said that so far it had been fighting well.

A battle group of Royal Marine infantry and armoured vehicles from the Household Cavalry Regiment had surrounded the town, gradually pushing forward yesterday to within a mile of it. About 200 trainers from the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment were fighting alongside Afghan soldiers. On Saturday one man from the regiment was killed and another was injured when their vehicle ran over a landmine.

Last night the Ministry of Defence named the man who died as Sergeant Lee Johnson, 33, of Stockton-on-Tees.

Yesterday a second soldier taking part in the campaign was killed and another wounded – also by a mine. Officials said that neither of the casualties was British.

Operation Mar Kardad is intended to overturn what many believe has been one of the biggest reverses to affect coalition troops in six years of fighting in Afghanistan – the Taleban’s success in taking, and holding, a town.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who is visiting Afghanistan, said that Musa Qala had taken on an “iconic importance”. The guerrillas took over the town, a notorious opium-trading bazaar, in February after a controversial deal months earlier – in which the British had handed over control to town elders – went wrong. Since then, guerrillas are believed to have used the town as a base for launching attacks on coalition soldiers.

Refugees have been leaving for several weeks in anticipation of an attack. It got under way at dusk on Friday with a helicopter landing by a taskforce of 300 US troops to cut off the Taleban’s line of retreat, and continued over the weekend with about 1,400 British combat troops moving in. A Taleban spokesman claimed that 2,000 fighters were ready to fight from fortified bunkers and that reinforcements were streaming in from the rest of Helmand. It is more likely that most defenders, who probably number about 300, will melt away before the final stages of the attack, although foreign jihadis might stay and fight to the death. Yesterday the attacking force’s progress was slow because landmines and booby traps are believed to have been laid.

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