OPERATION Mountain Thrust, the US-led counter- insurgency campaign in southern Afghanistan, which has resulted in the killing of between 600 and 700 Taleban and other opposition fighters, is being wound up today, as control of the region is transferred from the Americans to Nato.

Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, will take over command of southern Afghanistan in “stage three” of the alliance’s expansion in the country, during a ceremony in Kandahar this morning.

Operation Mountain Thrust, launched in four of the southern provinces — one of them Helmand, where 3,500 British troops are based — is viewed as a success, and has put the Taleban on the back foot, according to military sources.

Yesterday US-led coalition troops killed another 20 militants and foiled a Taleban ambush in the southern province of Uruzgan.

However, General Richards has made it clear that although he wants to maintain a high operational tempo, he intends to refocus the campaign in southern Afghanistan. The sources said that in consultation with the Government in Kabul, he planned to start creating “Afghan development zones” in selected areas, deploying troops to regions where reconstruction work could make a real impact on the local communities.

Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry, the most senior American commander in Afghanistan, will remain in charge of eastern Afghanistan until Nato expands into the east in about a month. Nato expects to remain in Afghanistan for about a decade.

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