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US Brigadier General Wounded in Afghanistan


FILE - U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley (Staff Sgt. Neysa Canfield)
FILE - U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley (Staff Sgt. Neysa Canfield)

The U.S. army has confirmed that a brigadier general was one of two Americans wounded in an attack last week in Afghanistan that fatally wounded a powerful Afghan police chief.

U.S. Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley, in charge of NATO's military advisory mission in Afghanistan, was shot when a gunman wearing an Afghan security forces uniform opened fire on a group of officials leaving a meeting with the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller.

Miller escaped injury, but a U.S. civilian was also shot.

FILE - Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kandahar, Afghanistan Aug. 4, 2016.
FILE - Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kandahar, Afghanistan Aug. 4, 2016.

General Abdul Raziq, an anti-Taliban strong man, was mortally wounded, along with the local head of the NDS intelligence service General Abdul Momim.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack inside the highly secured compound, dealing a severe blow to the Afghan government in one of its most strategically important provinces. The incident demonstrated the insurgents' ability to strike top leaders.

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