Karzai’s brother assassinated by bodyguard

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. 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. 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 bodyguard riddled 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.
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. Pakistan condemned the killing on Tuesday, with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani telephoning Karzai to express his condolences. President Asif Ali Zardari also offered his condolences to Hamid Karzai.