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Though somewhat unusual, the strategy was at least straightforward: Before executing a massive attack on Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan's Helmand province, NATO would get the word out.

Leaflets warning about a looming offensive were dropped in the two target areas: Marjah and Nad Ali. Coalition commanders hoped civilians and Taliban alike would leave, minimizing casualties. The coalition showed its hand, and hoped for the best.

The effects of that approach began to come to light Sunday, as NATO and Afghan National Army forces continued their fight to wrest Marjah and Nad Ali from Taliban control one day after launching one of the biggest attacks since the start of the Afghan war.

In Nad Ali, coalition forces encountered what they had been hoping for – nothing. Forty helicopters from three countries dropped in 1,100 troops exactly on schedule, with no casualties.

“It was flawless,” said Colonel Christian Drouin, head of Canada's air wing in Afghanistan. “The insurgents didn't show up at all. The tactics of going through the media, letting the attack be known, worked very, very good.”

But in Marjah, traditionally a Taliban-controlled area and hub in the opium trade, a different story continues to unfold. Many residents didn't flee, but chose instead to hunker down in their homes. On Sunday, two International Security Assistance Force rockets hit just such a home, killing 12 civilians and sparking an outcry. The rockets had been aimed at a group of Taliban fighters engaged in a gun battle with coalition forces 300 metres away.

It was a major setback, given that the attack – dubbed Operation Moshtarak, named for the Dari word meaning “together” – was planned and billed as an Afghan-led effort, meant to give the residents of the Taliban-held region confidence instead in the country's government.

“We deeply regret this tragic loss of life,” U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, ISAF's top commander, said in a statement apologizing to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“It's regrettable that in the cause of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost.”

Meanwhile, coalition forces are making slow progress into Marjah. Given the advance notice, Taliban insurgents have turned the community of 80,000 into a veritable minefield.

“We planted many mines,” one Taliban spokesman told The Globe and Mail. “Now we are preparing for [a] new attack against these forces in Marjah.”

Reporters embedded with American forces there heard controlled explosions – IEDs being purposefully blown up – every 10 minutes, as coalition forces worked with metal detectors and guide dogs to find the booby traps. Coalition forces also found IED-making supplies, seizing 150 kilograms of explosives and 300 metres of detonation wiring in separate patrols.

AP

U.S. soldiers and one Afghan soldier exchange fire with insurgents during a patrol in the Badula Qulp area of Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan on Sunday. In the fight, one soldier was wounded and at least one insurgent was killed. The soldiers are operating in support of a U.S. Marine offensive against the Taliban in Marjah.

“We thought there would be a lot, but we are finding even more than expected,” one U.S. commander, Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, told Associated Press.

The IEDs aren't only in Marjah. One British soldier died in an IED blast in Nad Ali, while a second ISAF soldier died Sunday from an IED blast in the region, though ISAF wouldn't say where. A U.S. soldier taking part in the attack also died, reportedly in a gun battle.

The strategy of telegraphing the target of an attack weeks before it happens has started from the top. Gen. McChrystal, in an Istanbul roundtable this month, said the increased IED threat was “a concern,” but that the strategy was meant to show Taliban fighters the inevitability of the coalition attack, and give them a chance to flee or surrender.

“We'd much rather have them see the inevitability that things are changing and just accept that. And we think we can give them that opportunity. And that's why it is a little unconventional to do it this way,” the general said.

“I think this [the new strategy] is the next example of the evolution and I guess the maturation of ... coalition forces as we get better ...” he said. “So I don't consider it a test case. I consider it the next step as we go forward.”

That step may extend to other large offensives this summer. Already, the leader of coalition forces in nearby Kandahar province, Canadian Brigadier-General Daniel Ménard, has started talking tough about his plan to push the Taliban from Kandahar's so-called “wild west” – the thinly populated regions surrounding Kandahar city. Brig.-Gen. Ménard has said repeatedly he hopes to “break the back” of the Taliban there.

The new strategy doesn't appear to have made for a quick operation, as the IED threat and Taliban resistance slow the advance of coalition forces. Taliban fighters are claiming to be holed up in the city's core – as many as 1,000 were estimated to be in the city before fighting started – and waiting for coalition forces to make their way through the IED maze before attacking.

“We're starting to come across areas where the insurgents have actually taken up defensive positions,” U.S. Marine spokesman Lieutenant Josh Diddams told AP. “Initially it was more hit and run.”

The U.S.-led force had reached “the majority” of Marjah on Sunday, he said. It could take 30 days to finish clearing the city, Brig.-Gen. Nicholson said, although other commanders were wary to make such estimates.

“We can never predict how long an operation is going to last, because the insurgent – or the enemy – have a say in it. We don't know how they will react to the presence of the government of Afghanistan in their area,” said Colonel Shane Brennan, a Canadian commander whose soldiers are mentoring Afghan National Army fighters in Marjah. “We'll have to wait and see on that one.”