Kabul, Afghanistan ? The new top commander in Afghanistan is talking up a weapon that has been kept in the shadows for years — special operations missions to kill or capture key insurgents — to try to convince skeptics the war can be won.

More than previous commanders, Gen. David Petraeus has released the results of special operations missions — 235 militant leaders were killed or captured in the last 90 days, another 1,066 rank-and-file insurgents killed and 1,673 detained — to demonstrate the Taliban and their allies are also suffering losses as NATO casualties rise.

Petraeus told reporters traveling Friday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, that in the past 24 hours, special operations forces carried out eight missions, capturing three targeted individuals. Four more were believed killed or detained, Petraeus said.

Accentuating the positive is part of Petraeus’ media style, developed when he commanded U.S. forces in Iraq and was widely credited with helping turn the tide in that war.

Those skills are part of what the White House knew it needed when President Barack Obama selected the four-star general in July to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal, after remarks critical of the administration appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

Since taking command, Petraeus has used a series of high-profile media interviews to try to reverse the wave of pessimism about the war, especially within Congress and the American public.

Playing up missions by special operations forces — Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Army Rangers and Green Berets — offers a way to demonstrate that the U.S. and its NATO partners are taking the fight to the Taliban.

Petraeus has shared key heretofore classified data with reporters at a level of detail that surprised many U.S. officials here and in Washington.

A senior official in Kabul downplayed the notion that publicizing these details is calculated to win public support, saying it simply highlights one of the war’s successes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the commander’s strategy.

Special operations missions are now at their highest tempo, with nearly 4,000 carried out between May and August, according to officials here.

U.S. officials are sensitive to the suggestion that Petraeus is using the spec-ops successes for public effect, perhaps because it harks back to the largely discredited body counts of the Vietnam war.

But back in Washington, the release of information was warmly welcomed in some quarters, offsetting the daily drumbeat of rising U.S. casualties. At least 28 U.S. service members have been killed in the past week.

Special operations troops have been in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001, working with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance to drive the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States and later to pursue al-Qaida leaders.

Last fall, McChrystal, who commanded special operations forces in Iraq, stepped up the tempo, broadening their mission to include killing or capturing midlevel commanders in the Taliban and their allies in the Haqqani network.

What’s new is that Petraeus and his aides are talking about it.

By highlighting their successes, Petraeus could earn bankable political capital that he will need if he recommends that Obama slow the drawdown of U.S. troops that the president promised will begin next July.