Afghanistan’s Kandahar Leadership Wiped Out, Taliban Takes Credit

Gen Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and intended target, was unhurt in the incident.

Kandahar police chief Gen Abdul Raziq was reportedly killed in an attack after a high-profile meeting with US commander General Scott Miller, reports suggest.

(Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/File Photo)

Afghan officials say two top Kandahar province officials have been killed by their own guards in an attack at a security meeting that also wounded Kandahar’s governor and two US troops.

A Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility for the attack tells The Associated Press that US Gen Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, was the target. NATO officials say Miller escaped unharmed.

Kandahar’s deputy provincial governor Agha Lala Dastageri said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Raziq and the province’s intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin died immediately in the attack.

Earlier reports said the provincial governor Zelmai Wesai had died of his injuries, but the latest reports out of Afghanistan say he is alive, but wounded.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi took responsibility for the attack.

The security meeting inside the sprawling provincial governor's residence was being held ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections.

(This is a developing story and will be updated.)