Ground Report

A senior Afghan militant commander was killed by Afghan security forces as he was attempting to cross the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Malawi Abdul Manan and a couple of other insurgents were killed in a surprise attack launched by the Afghan security forces on Sunday, an official of the US led coalition forces quoted. Manan’s death is seen by analysts in the region as a big blow to the Taliban extremists as he leaves behind a group of militants without a able succesor to re-organize the movement. Manan was also responsible for the movement of both extremists and weapons smuggling across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Manan’s role in the militant movement parallels to that of the ruthless one-legged Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed by foreign troops in May.