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Afghanistan postpones election in Kandahar after attack

The head of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, center left, Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa, center right, and their delegations attend a security conference, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The three top officials in Afghanistan's Kandahar province were killed, including Wesa, when their own guards opened fire on them at the conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said. A Taliban spokesman said the target was Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO. (AP Photo)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s election commission today postponed elections in Kandahar for a week, following a brazen attack on a high-profile security meeting there with a U.S. delegation that killed at least two senior provincial officials, including the province’s police chief.

The development came as mourners gathered for the funeral of police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq, assassinated in Thursday’s attack. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the assault, saying they targeted the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller, who was at the meeting but was unharmed.

The Independent Election Commission’s deputy spokesman Aziz Ibrahimi said the postponement was meant to allow mourners to observe funeral rights for the slain officials.

Also killed in Thursday’s attack was the Kandahar intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin, but the condition of the province’s governor, Zalmay Wesa, who was wounded, has been shrouded in mystery since the assault. Some reports say Wesa has been transferred to a NATO hospital outside Kandahar.

The Kandahar meeting, convened to discuss security plans for Saturday’s parliamentary elections, had just concluded when an elite Afghan guard turned his gun on the departing delegation.

Two Afghan policemen were also killed and three were wounded in the attack, according to a Kandahar hospital official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

Three Americans — a U.S. service member, a coalition contractor and an American civilian — were wounded and in stable condition, NATO said.

The funeral prayers for Raziq, who had been credited with single-handedly keeping the Taliban at bay in a province the insurgents once considered their spiritual heartland, were being held today at Kandahar’s most famous shrine, Khareq Mubarak, said to contain the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad.

A Kandahar lawmaker running for parliament, Khaled Pashtun, said the one-week postponement in the polling was meant to give voters who might have stayed at home on Saturday, afraid so soon after the attack, the chance to vote in the elections. Nevertheless, the attack, more than 17 years after the Taliban were driven from power, underscores the harrowing insecurity in Afghanistan ahead of the elections.

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