Afghan president's brother assassinated

By Mamoon Durrani | AFP – 13 hrs ago

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's younger brother, the government's key powerbroker in the south of the country, was assassinated on Tuesday, depriving NATO of a vital if controversial ally.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for killing Ahmed Wali Karzai in his own home, while the Kandahar provincial police chief said he was shot dead by the long-serving commander of his family's personal protection force.

President Karzai confirmed his brother's death at a news conference with visiting French leader Nicolas Sarkozy.

"This morning, my younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai was martyred at his house," he said, reciting a Muslim prayer in Arabic.

"This is the life of the people of Afghanistan. Afghan families, every one of us, have suffered from it, and we hope, God willing, for our suffering to be over," he said.

The half-brother of the Afghan leader was for years a deeply controversial figure, dogged by allegations of unsavoury links to Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade and private security firms.

But his killing raises disturbing questions about possible infiltration among those closest to the Karzai family and is also a severe blow to NATO and the Afghan leadership in Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.

The incident comes as coalition troops start withdrawing from the country and Western nations search for a political solution after a decade of war.

Kandahar police chief Abdul Razeq identified the assassin as Sardar Mohammad, the commander of a force of 200 bodyguards who had provided security for the younger Karzai's family in Kandahar city for seven years.

He said Mohammed showed a letter to bodyguards at the house in the upmarket neighbourhood of Bala Karz, saying he had "urgent" business with Karzai -- head of the Kandahar provincial council -- and was ushered into his study alone.

"Moments later the bodyguards hear the sound of gunshots and when they enter the room they find Ahmed Wali Karzai shot in the head and chest, and in a pool of blood," he said.

"The bodyguards riddle Sardar with bullets. Ahmed Wali Karzai died on the spot," he said, adding that the assassin and his victim, no one else died in the attack.

The police chief and an official at the hospital where Karzai's body was taken both said he had been shot in the head and the chest.

A senior official with Afghanistan's spy agency, the National Directorate for Security (NDS), confirmed the account of the killing by Mohammad who he said was an elder in Karzai's home village.

"They were meeting alone in a room," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Sardar takes off his pistol and shoots him twice." Describing the gunman as in "his late 30s or early 40s", he added: "Wali knew him from a long time ago."

The assassination came just before the Afghan leader received French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was on a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he announced that Paris would recall 1,000 soldiers by the end of next year.

Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa said the killer was a "trusted guy".

"Every time Hamid Karzai and Qayoum Karzai (his brother) would come to Kandahar for a family visit, all the security responsibility would be given to Sardar Mohammad," he said.

Razeq said Mohammad's personal bodyguards were arrested after the attack and security ramped up in Kandahar city, with roads around Karzai's house blocked.

American documents leaked by Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks painted the younger Karzai as a corrupt drugs baron, lifting the lid on Western thoughts long kept private.

The top US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, who steps down next week before becoming head of the CIA, condemned the killing and pledged the support of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"I strongly condemn the actions by anyone who played a role in this murder. ISAF will support the Afghan government in every possible way to bring to justice those involved," he said.

The US embassy in Kabul also condemned the assassination "in the strongest possible terms".

Kandahar is a make-or-break battleground in the US-led fight to defeat the insurgency, where the United States has poured in thousands of extra troops to wrest the initiative from the Taliban and bolster the Afghan government.

In April, Kandahar's provincial police chief was killed in a suicide bombing by one of his own bodyguards, who was believed to have known him for 10 years.

The governor of the restive province told AFP last month that insurgents in the area had recently changed tactics, using assassinations to sow fear.

Afghanistan is ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where official graft undermines public support for the Western-backed government and is believed to help fuel support for the Taliban insurgency.

"The meeting with AWK (Wali Karzai) highlights one of our major challenges in Afghanistan: how to fight corruption and connect the people to their government, when the key government officials are themselves corrupt," said a 2009 US cable

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