Violence delays some Afghan elections; Stopping armed consumer drones; Syrian peace talks, sort of; Helo down on US carrier; And a bit more.

Taliban violence has delayed parliamentary elections in southern Afghanistan by a week following the group’s brazen assassination attempt Thursday on key Afghan officials and — if the group is to be believed — the general in charge of the war, U.S. Army Gen. Scott Miller. Miller’s PAO, however, told the Associated Press the target was clearly the Kandahar police chief.

And that man, Gen. Abdul Raziq, was indeed murdered in the apparent insider attack, officials later confirmed on Thursday. The province’s spy chief, Abdul Mohmin, was also murdered in the shooting, which involved one of the governor’s bodyguards opening fire on the provincial leadership and a few coalition troops present for a meeting at the governor’s compound in Kandahar City.

The governor himself, Zalmay Wesa, was also severely wounded, but was not killed, Reuters reports. Three Afghan policemen were also killed and three others were wounded, according to AP. “Miller himself gave a show of confidence on Friday, filming a television interview on the street outside the U.S. embassy in Kabul and assuring Afghanistan of continued support.”

Here’s Miller in Kabul on Friday speaking with locals about those elections, which will go on as scheduled outside of Kandahar.

FWIW: The AP has an elections preview, here.

The Taliban, meantime, warned Afghans against going to the polls on Saturday, vowing to shut down roads while they monitor developments, Reuters writes.

Said U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis: The death of Raziq marks the “tragic loss of a patriot... Terrorism can have a short-term effect. I think it’s too early to say whether it will have any real effect on the upcoming election. I’m not willing to say that right now.”

By the way: Mattis still supports reconciling with the Taliban, telling reporters, “We remain absolutely committed to an Afghan-led Afghan reconciliation. Right now, we’re going toward the election and we will continue to defend the Afghan people.” More from the Associated Press, here.

And the latest on coalition wounded in that attack: One American servicemember, one American civilian and one coalition contractor sustained injuries, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spox Col. Dave Butler announced on Twitter after the smoke had cleared on Thursday.

Asked former U.S. Marine officer Chris Chivers: “If the US military's top general & VIP Afghans in a security bubble are not safe from insider attacks, what about security of rank-and-file troops? How effectively can they operate & train in this climate? What kind of lottery has been made of their lives?”

From Defense One

How to Stop Weaponized Consumer Drones // Ben Watson: Have a drone you want removed from the sky? Grab your wallet, some patience, and probably a lawyer — because so far, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

CEO Q&A: L3's Chris Kubasik and Harris’s Bill Brown // Marcus Weisgerber: Soon after the companies announced plans to form the world's 7th-largest defense firm, the CEOs rang up for a joint interview.

Global Business Brief, Oct. 18  // Marcus Weisgerber: U.S. Army’s next-gen maps app; L3, Harris CEOs talk merger; 3D-printing ship parts, and more.

The Pentagon Is Recruiting Tech Talent Like Colleges Recruit Athletes // Frank Konkel, Nextgov: The Defense Department is trying new methods of engagement to recruit young techies.

Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief by Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston. If you find this useful, please consider forwarding it to a friend or colleague. On this day in 1917, the first donuts in the world were introduced on the French battlefield of World War I.

Four-way talks on Syria — excluding the U.S. — will happen late next week in Istanbul, Reuters reports. Parties involved: Russia, Turkey, Germany, France, and not Syria.
Reminder: A “disaster” has so far been averted in Syria’s Turkey-bordering province of Idlib because Turkey was able to convince Russia and Syria to agree to a buffer zone of about a dozen miles and to halt an offensive on rebel-held portions of Idlib, Reuters reported separately on Thursday.
Worth noting: Idlib has gone five weeks without an airstrike, according to U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland.
But fighting continues to the east, in regions believed to be held by remaining ISIS fighters. Some 7,000 civilians have fled. A bit more from AP, here.

By the way: Russia’s Vladimir Putin said Thursday that ISIS kidnapped 700 people from a refugee camp in Deir-al Zor province — but the Pentagon isn’t ready to endorse Vlad’s claim.
Said a Pentagon spox: “While we have confirmed that there was an attack on an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near (Deir-al Zor) last week, we have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin and we are skeptical of its accuracy. We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp.”

Helo down on the USS Reagan. “A U.S. Navy helicopter crashed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on Friday, causing non-fatal injuries to a dozen sailors,” AP reports this morning from Tokyo.
Known-knowns: An MH-60 Seahawk “crashed shortly after takeoff Friday morning while the carrier was off the Philippine coast." The sailors were in the region for an "international naval review hosted off the South Korean island of Jeju last week."

China has an internet czar, and he’s standing trial today for corruption in the eastern city of Ningbo, AP reports.
His name: Lu Wei, and he was responsible for censoring whatever Beijing didn’t want its population to see on the web. Lu "took a hard line in demanding tough security checks on imported foreign tech products and keeping out foreign internet companies and social networks like Facebook in the name of preserving social stability."
Today Lu stands "accused of accepting 32 million yuan ($4.6 million) in bribes," but he "has admitted to his crimes and expressed remorse," according to state-run media, CCTV.

The U.S. Congress invited a former Chinese detainee to America, but his visa application was rejected, AP reports.
His name: Omir Bekali, a Muslim from Kazakhstan.
Who invited him: the chairs of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China.
Why this matters: “Bekali was one of the first people to speak out publicly about his experience in a camp in China’s Xinjiang region, where an estimated 1 million Muslims, mostly from the Uighur and Kazakh ethnicities, are being detained,” the Associated Press writes.  
As well: VP Mike Pence spoke out last week on two separate instances against the religious repression carried out by Chinese officials to Muslims and residents of Xinjiang.

And finally today: Stay tuned — we’ll be posting our latest Defense One Radio podcast episode shortly. The focus this week is on China, from three separate angles:

• Muslim/Uighur repression and why the U.S. and the international community cares;
• Big picture strategic concerns when it comes to China’s military and its economy;
• And we’ll visit a rare-earth research facility on the outskirts of coal country in central Kentucky. We’ll tell you how those new and old resources are coming together in one place just outside of Lexington.

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