Taliban assassinates top Afghan security officials, misses US general

General Abdul Raziq, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful security officials, was killed, along with Governor Zalmai Wesa and a local NDS intelligence commander, when a bodyguard opened fire after a meeting in the Kandahar governor’s compound on Thursday.  Gen. Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan who had been at the meeting with Raziq only moments earlier, was uninjured in the attack. In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they had targeted both Miller and Raziq, who had a fearsome reputation as a ruthless opponent of the armed group. The assassinations leave a power vacuum in Kandahar province ahead of elections on Saturday.