U.S. kills top Afghan Taliban commander, potentially complicating nascent peace talks

Taliban leader Abdul Manan killed in drone strike
(Image credit: Javed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images)

A U.S. "unarmed aircraft" killed a top Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan on Saturday night, the U.S.-led international military coalition in Afghanistan said Sunday. The Taliban and Afghan government confirmed the death of the commander, Abdul Manan, the Taliban's shadow governor in Helmand province. His death is the biggest loss for the Taliban since a U.S. drone strike killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour in Pakistan in 2016, The Wall Street Journal says. Manan's death, followed Sunday by airstrikes on a Taliban training camp in Helmand that killed at least 29 people, coincided with the start of tentative peace talks with the Taliban launched in July.

Some experts on the Taliban and Afghanistan said the killing of Manan could actually further peace talks. As shadow governor of Helmand province and its lucrative drug trade, Manan's access to large amounts of cash gave him and his hardline views an independent power base within the Taliban, and a peace deal would have hurt the him financially. But the death of Mansour in 2016 stalled peace talks, and other experts told the Journal that the deaths of previous Taliban leaders have had little long-term effect on their insurgency or talks to end the 17-year-long war.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.