US General Shot in Last Week’s Taliban Attack

US General Shot in Last Week’s Taliban Attack
An Afghan policeman keeps watch at a check point in Ghazni city, Afghanistan, on Sept. 16, 2018. (Mustafa Andaleb/Reuters)
The Associated Press
10/22/2018
Updated:
10/22/2018

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon has confirmed that U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was shot in a Taliban attack that killed two Afghan leaders inside the Kandahar governor’s compound last week.

U.S. military spokesman Cmdr. Grant W. Neeley provided no other details. The Washington Post reported earlier on Oct. 21, that Smiley was recovering after suffering at least one gunshot wound.

The Taliban assassinated two top provincial officials Thursday in Kandahar province in an attack on a security conference attended by the top U.S. military commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. He escaped injury.

Smiley was assigned in the summer to lead a Kandahar-based command with a mission to train and advise Afghan security forces and help with counterterrorism operations in southern Afghanistan.