US General Wounded During Thursday Insider Attack in Afghanistan

Brig. Gen. Smiley was shot during attack that killed Kandahar officials

On Thursday, an insider attack in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province killed materially all of the top-ranking officials in the provincial government. The Pentagon downplayed the matter, saying two Americans were wounded, but that the top general present was unharmed.

What they didn’t reveal until Sunday was that the “serviceman” wounded in the attack was actually Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley, a high-ranking advisor for the NATO mission in southern Afghanistan. He was shot, and is recovering.

Already the most significant insider attack of the war, having basically taken out the provincial government, this makes it an even bigger attack, as it means a Taliban gunman also got close enough to shoot a US general after killing all these people.

Gen. Scott Miller, who is currently in charge of the war, was also in the room during the attack, though he appears to be one of the few who got out unharmed. In addition to Smiley, an unnamed American civilian also got shot.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.