Metheny helps kill Afghan assassin

A Southeast Missouri man who is a high-ranking military leader in Afghanistan was involved in killing an assassin Thursday, but not before the assassin killed several Afghan leaders in what is being described as an "inside job."

American military officials confirmed three Americans were injured, but neither the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller nor Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Metheny were hurt in the attack, according to Metheny's father, Tom Metheny, of Marble Hill, Missouri, who said he spoke to his son Thursday by phone.

Tom Metheny said his son, who serves as Gen. Miller's senior enlisted leader, was with the four-star general "about 15 feet away" when the shooting started. At least three Afghan officials were killed, a deputy governor of the Kandahar province told the New York Times, including an influential police chief General Abdul Raziq, Gov. Zalmai Wesa, and an intelligence chief, Gen. Abdul Momin.

Early reports were unclear on the specifics of the attack, but suggest the gunman -- or gunmen -- was a member of the Afghan leaders' security detail. Tom Metheny said his son confirmed Gen. Raziq had been the target of the attack, not the American leadership, contradicting a statement released by the Taliban after the attack in which they claimed responsibility and named both the slain general and Gen. Miller as targets.

"Their target was a general from Afghanistan," Tom Metheny said. "It was an inside job and they got their target."

An American flag carried by Command Sergeant Major Timothy Metheny during a past tour of duty in Iraq hangs above an Operation Iraqi Freedom flag, also from Metheny's tour, in his father Tom's garage in Marble Hill Monday.TYLER GRAEF

Metheny said his son and others then fired upon the assassin, killing him.

Metheny said his son did not provide much further detail about the incident during their brief conversation, but remarked about how such attacks are relatively common. The Afghan general who was killed had previously survived dozens of attempted assassinations, telling the New York Times in 2015 he had "lost count of the number of times the Taliban have tried to kill him."

A New York Times article published Thursday called the attack, "one of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the Afghan war," and described Gen. Raziq as "an indispensable security chief with influence across critical areas of southern Afghanistan, in the Taliban heartland," who was "valued by American commanders as a fierce ally against the insurgents."

Preventing such violence from the Taliban, which has loomed over the country's ongoing election process, is part of the reason Metheny deployed to Afghanistan this summer after Gen. Miller was tapped to lead U.S. forces there.

Gen. Miller, who spent much of his career commanding special forces operations, was in part chosen specifically for his experience in counterinsurgency efforts.

In a statement following the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed his commitment to investigating the incident.

"I promise the Afghan people that soon the situation will get normal in Kandahar," he said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573)388-3627