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Two top Afghan government security officials in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, were killed and the governor of Kandahar was wounded in an attack Thursday by a man wearing an Afghan military uniform. Two Americans were also wounded in the attack that occurred in the governor’s compound in Afghanistan’s second largest city.
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File-Jawed Tanveer/AFP/Getty ImagesKilled in the attack on Thursday was Lt. Gen. Abdul Raziq, the well-known police chief in Kandahar — and its intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin. Kandahar Province is in the south of the country, bordering Pakistan.
Kandahar’s governor, Zalmai Wessa, was wounded in the attack and is receiving treatment at a NATO coalition medical facility, said a spokesman for Resolute Support, the name of the NATO-led training mission in Afghanistan. Earlier there had been conflicting reports that Wessa had been killed in the attack.
Two Americans were also wounded in the crossfire, a military service member and a civilian. A third person, a contractor who is not American, was also wounded. They were medically evacuated and are reported to be in stable condition.
File-Jawed Tanveer/AFP/Getty ImagesThe attack at the governor’s compound in Kandahar occurred shortly after a meeting there attended by the top U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin Scott Miller.
A Resolute Support spokesman said the attack occurred in an outside area of the compound as the participants in the meeting were dispersing.
Miller was on his way to his helicopter when the attack occurred and was uninjured in the incident.
The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the incident, said Miller had been a target. But the head of Afghanistan’s army, Gen. Mohammad Yaftali, said at a news conference that the target was the police chief, Raziq. U.S. officials also discounted that claim, describing the attack as directed towards Afghan officials.
File-Jawed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images“There was a situation at the Kandahar palace today,” said Col. David Butler, spokesman for U.S. Forces Afghanistan “Initial reports indicate Afghan officials were the targets.”
“Initial reports also say the attacker is dead,” said Butler.
In a tweet Miller praised Lt. Gen. Raziz saying “Today I lost a great friend.”
“We had served together for many years,” said Miller. “Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan. The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone.”
“Today I lost a great friend Lt. Gen. Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan. The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone.”
-Gen. Scott Miller— USFOR-A Spokesman, Col Dave Butler (@USFOR_A) October 18, 2018
Though it appears the attack was directed at the Afghan officials, it is the closest that the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan has come to being being a potential target in an insider attack. That is the term used to describe attacks carried out by Afghan security forces targeting U.S. or NATO security personnel.
In 2014, Major General Harold Greene, who was in charge of part of the training mission in Afghanistan, was killed in an insider attack carried out by an Afghan soldier.
He is the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to have died in Afghanistan.
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