US General Recovering in Washington after Kandahar Attack

The general wounded in last week's deadly attack in Kandahar is recovering in Washington, with an Australian general now in command of NATO's advisory mission in the war-torn country's south.

Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley "is now at Walter Reed Military Medical Center," U.S. Navy Commander Grant Neely, a spokesman for U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, confirmed to VOA.

"[Australian Army] Brigadier General John Shanahan arrived today and is the acting commander for TAAC-South," Neely added Thursday, using an acronym for NATO's Train, Advise and Assist Command in Kandahar.

Smiley was shot on Oct. 18 when a gunman wearing an Afghan security forces uniform opened fire on a group of officials leaving a meeting with the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Army General Scott Miller.

Miller escaped injury, but General Abdul Raziq, an anti-Taliban hardliner, and General Abdul Momim, the local head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence service, were killed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack inside the highly secured compound, dealing a severe blow to the Afghan government in one of its most strategically important provinces. The incident demonstrated the insurgents' ability to strike top leaders.