Military commander's news about area followed by both sides (7)
I believe the answer is:
warlord
'military commander's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'news about area followed by both sides' is the wordplay.
'news' becomes 'word' ('word' can be a synonym of 'news').
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'followed by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'both sides' becomes 'rl' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'rl'='arl'
'word' enclosing 'arl' is 'WARLORD'.
(Other definitions for warlord that I've seen before include "Regional military commander" , "Military leader" .)