Doctors in Pakistan have successfully removed a bullet from a 14-year-old girl shot by the Taliban for speaking out against the militant group and promoting education for women.

Officials say Malala Yousufzai is in stable but critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck Tuesday on her way home from school in Swat Valley. Two other girls were wounded in the attack.

Doctors at a Peshawar military hospital removed a bullet from her neck early Wednesday after she developed complications. They say she is improving but remains unconscious.

On Wednesday, the head of Pakistan's military, General Ashfaq Kayani, visited Yousufzai's hospital and condemned her attackers. He vowed to fight on against militants.

Pakistani political and religious leaders also condemned the attack, as did Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. officials.

Yousufzai is internationally recognized for documenting atrocities committed by the Taliban in the area near her home. She wrote under a pseudonym – Gul Makai – in a blog published by the BBC.

The girl described life under the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, when militants carried out beheadings and other violence in the territory they controlled – large areas of the Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting. A Taliban spokesman said Yousufzai was “pro-West, and that she denounced the militant group and called U.S. President Barack Obama her idol.

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