2 Americans wounded, top general escapes harm in deadly shooting at governor's mansion in Afghanistan

By Lucas Tomlinson | Fox News



Two Americans were wounded in a shooting outside the governor's mansion in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar. (REUTERS/Ahamad Nadeem )



Two Americans were wounded in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in an "insider attack" during a high-level meeting at the governor's mansion in Kandahar Province, two U.S. officials told Fox News, as local reports also claimed powerful Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq was killed and the top U.S. general in the country narrowly escaped harm.

Army Gen. Scott Miller, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, was at the meeting but wasn't wounded in the attack, U.S. officials told Fox News. It was not immediately clear if Miller was in the room when the shooting began, with some local media reporting the general had left only minutes before.
The shooter in the Taliban-claimed “insider attack," was killed, one official said. The assailant was reportedly one of the governor's bodyguards.

U.S. officials declined to give any more details about the two Americans wounded in the attack -- including how critically they were injured -- beyond confirming one was a civilian and one was a member of the military.

Raziq, a powerful and longtime U.S. ally who had eluded countless assassination attempts, was killed as he departed the meeting. The fates of other Afghan officials reportedly at the meeting were not immediately clear.

The attack comes two days before Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections Saturday.

Kandahar is one of the most volatile provinces in Afghanistan. It's the spiritual home of the Taliban and is where the Islamist group held its first organizational meetings in the 1990s.

There are currently 15,000 U.S. troops serving in the country. Seven soldiers have been killed in action this year.

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