3 top Afghan officials killed by guards, US general survives - Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The three top officials in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province were killed when their own guards opened fire on them at a security conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said, and a Taliban spokesman said the target was Washington’s top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO.

Agha Lala Dastageri, Kandahar’s deputy provincial governor, said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Raziq was among the dead, along with Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa, who died of his wounds at a nearby hospital.

Dastageri said provincial intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin also died inside the governor’s sprawling residence where the attack occurred.

Three Americans — a service member and two civilian workers — were wounded in the shooting, said U.S. Col. Knut Peters, a spokesman for NATO troops in Afghanistan. Their conditions were not immediately known.

“Gen. Miller is unhurt,” said Peters. Miller is the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

It was members of Wesa’s elite guard unit who turned their guns on their colleagues during a high-level security meeting ahead of Saturday’s parliamentary elections. 

An Interior Ministry official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said Raziq rarely visited the governor’s residence and was meticulous about his own security.

Razik was a particularly powerful figure in southern Kandahar and a close U.S. ally despite widespread allegations of corruption. He ruled in Kandahar, the former Taliban heartland, with an iron fist and had survived several attempts to kill him, including one last year that resulted in the death of five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates. 

Security has been steadily deteriorating in Afghanistan with increasingly brazen attacks being carried out by insurgents and Afghanistan’s security forces have been on high alert ahead of Saturday’s elections.- Read More

3 top Afghan officials killed by guards, US general survives