Assessing Operation Moshtarak

It has been two months since Operation Moshtarak - involving thousands of Afghan national army troops and international soldiers - got under way in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.

Moshtarak- "together" in Dari and Pashto - was the first major test of the strategy of US President Barack Obama to take on the Taliban and end the eight-year conflict with one of the biggest offensives since the 2001 US-led invasion.

It was designed to clear Taliban fighters from Helmand's Marjah region and hold it so that the civilian administration could establish itself.

Marjah was thought to be the hub of the Taliban-controlled opium trade - which provides them with most of their funding.

Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Lashkar Gah in Helmand, on whether Moshtarak achieved its goal.