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.

Malala Yousufzai was in critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck while boarding a school bus in Swat Valley Tuesday. Two other girls were wounded in the attack.

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

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting. A spokesman said Yousufzai was “pro-West, speaking out against the Taliban, and calling U.S. President Barack Obama her idol.”

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.