South Afghan's Hamid Karzai -
Afghan President's Brother Killed
President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai's half-brother Ahmad Wali Karzai was just assassinated in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, leading power broker in south Afghanistan, and a half-brother to the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, was shot dead in his home today.
Ahmad Karzia was shot twice - once in the head and once in the chest, by his own head of security, Sardar Mohammed.
Taliban claim they are responsible for carrying out the attack.They are saying it is one of their top 10 accomplishments of the entire war going on in their country.
Afghan officials do not yet agree, saying it is not clear exactly why Karzai's security chief killed him.
Khaled Pashtun, a provincial politician is sceptical about claims of Taliban, says the group had claimed responsibility in the past for my attacks yet evidence of their involvment was never established..
Sarar Mohammed's reasons have not been disclosed, as this killing has raised a number of issues about security for Afghanistan's leaders and top officials.
Nato considers this a major blow to their ongoing fight against Taliban there.
Previous Assasination Attempts
Kandahar police chief Abdul Razeq told reporters that Mr Mohammed had travelled to Mr Karzai's home early on Tuesday, saying he needed to show documents to his boss.
"The man carried his pistol through the security checks to Wali Karzai's room. As soon as Wali Karzai came out of the bathroom, he opened fire and shot him in the head and chest," Mr Razeq said.
The killing is the latest and most high-profile in a series of assassinations of senior politicians and security commanders across the country.
The Afghan president, who is expected to leave Kabul shortly to attend his half-brother's funeral, said the assassination reflected the suffering of all Afghan people.
"This is the way of life for the people of Afghanistan," said Mr Karzai.
"The homes of all Afghans feel this pain. Our hope is this will come to an end, and peace and happiness will come to our homes and will come to rule in our country."
Critics said Ahmad Wali Karzai was a warlord mired in corruption who was openly involved in the drugs trade and had a personal militia at his disposal.
His supporters saw him as a defender of Pashtun rights. The president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities.
Security was intensified in Kandahar following Tuesday morning's shooting, as the body of Ahmad Wali Karzai was taken to a nearby hospital.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says it is hard to overstate how important Ahmad Wali Karzai was in the south of Afghanistan and in Nato's efforts to combat the Taliban in their stronghold there.
Our correspondent adds that as head of the Kandahar Provincial Council, he was a staunch ally of US and allied forces in Afghanistan - to the extent that they turned a blind eye to accusations he was involved in drug-trafficking.
“U.S. Official says,
[Ahmad Wali Karzai] had his unsavoury side, but he was someone we could work with and he kept a lid on things in Kandahar”
"[Ahmad Wali Karzai] had his unsavoury side, but he was someone we could work with and he kept a lid on things in Kandahar," a US official told reporters.
The commander of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), US General David Petraeus, condemned the assassination and said Isaf would work with the Afghan government to bring anyone involved to justice.
"President Karzai is working to create a stronger, more secure Afghanistan, and for such a tragic event to happen to someone within his own family is unfathomable," said Gen Petraeus.
Ahmad Wali Karzai had survived attempts on his life before, most recently in a rocket and machine-gun attack in 2009 as his convoy was travelling towards Kabul.
The previous year, he was chairing a meeting in a government building when a bomb-filled fuel tanker exploded close by.
Although Mr Karzai escaped unhurt, six people were killed and 40 wounded in the blast.
He and other officials blamed Taliban militants for the bombing.
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