News @ 3 - 3rd December 2018

KABUL: A senior Taliban military commander has been killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.

Abdul Manan, who was the Taliban’s ‘shadow governor’ in the southern Helmand province, died of wounds sustained during an airstrike late on Saturday said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the official governor of the province.

Manan’s death was also confirmed by the Taliban who in a statement described it as a “big loss” for the group but vowed that it will not affect their military operations.

Helmand — the region that supplies the largest share of Afghanistan’s opium crop — has been the scene of bitter fighting for years with 10 out of 14 districts of the province either controlled or contested by the Taliban.