Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President's Brother, Assassinated

[High_Gravity]

Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President's Brother, Assassinated

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his half brother's assassination reflects the suffering of all Afghan people.

Karzai said Tuesday in a press conference that Ahmed Wali Karzai's death is a pain he shares with all Afghans.

Officials say Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated by a bodyguard at his home in Kandahar.

The president says "in the houses of the people of Afghanistan, each of us is suffering and our hope is, God willing, to remove this suffering from the people of Afghanistan and implement peace and stability."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother, a lightning rod for criticism of all that is wrong with the Afghan government, was assassinated by a bodyguard Tuesday at his home in the southern province of Kandahar, officials said.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was head of the Kandahar provincial council, had become a political liability for the Karzai government after a series of allegations, including that he was on the CIA payroll and involved in drug trafficking. He denied the charges, and the president repeatedly defended him, denouncing accusations that his brother was involved in criminal activities in the restive south.

Ahmed Wali Karzai's death was confirmed by Zalmai Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar province, and Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. A member of Karzai's private security team killed him with an AK-47, according to a person who witnessed the killing. The individual declined to be identified.

Rangina Hamidi, a resident of Kandahar and daughter of the city's mayor, said Ahmed Wali Karzai is survived by five children – two sons and three daughters. She says his youngest son was born about a month ago.

"It is his one-month-old child who is never going to see his father that I cry about," she said sobbing on the phone. "How many orphans and widows are we creating in this country?"

Ahmed Wali Karzai has been the reported target of multiple assassination attempts.

In May 2009, his motorcade was ambushed by insurgents firing rockets and machine guns in eastern Nangarhar province. One of his bodyguards was killed, but he was not harmed.

That attack came less than two months after four Taliban suicide bombers stormed Kandahar's provincial council office, killing 13 people in an assault that Ahmed Wali Karzai said was aimed at him. A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted the general compound. The president's half brother had left the building a few minutes before that attack.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan President's Brother, Assassinated

 

[Trajan]

thx. I was just going to post this.

well, its starts. the gov. forces all the way to the number 2 man in the country is rife with double agents and those hostile to the state and it will only breed more, what does it say when you cannot even keep the brother of the pres. alive?

afghan. will go straight down hill, 6 months ( if it takes that long) after we are gone. I give it oh, another year before we see significant uptick in trng. camps etc. along the lines AQ had running post 911 and even there after in Waziristan.

 

[High_Gravity]

thx. I was just going to post this.

well, its starts. the gov. forces all the way to the number 2 man in the country is rife with double agents and those hostile to the state and it will only breed more, what does it say when you cannot even keep the brother of the pres. alive?

afghan. will go straight down hill, 6 months ( if it takes that long) after we are gone. I give it oh, another year before we see significant uptick in trng. camps etc. along the lines AQ had running post 911 and even there after in Waziristan.

Karzais brother was shady though, from what I heard alot of people wanted him dead, the CIA, Taliban, even Karzai himself had problems with him. I think there is alot more that happened than we know, if this guy really wanted to be safe he could have stayed in the Presidential Palace with Karzai, that place is safe it is full of US Private Security Contractors who are Karzais bodyguards and US Military Personnel.

 

[Trajan]

that would mean his bodyguard either did it on; on Taliban orders, a drug dealers orders, his brothers orders or the cia.....

I vote Taliban.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, no. Karzai wouldn't kill his own brother, would he?

Over there to kill one's brother is a way to send a terrifying message to the country's leader.

I agree with Trajan. It's the Taliban rattling their sabres.

 

[High_Gravity]

It probably is the Taliban but even if it was, if Karzai really wanted his brother safe this would not have happened, from what I gather this clown was living in Kandahar which is Taliban country.

 

[CitizenPained]

Fuck.

We need to bring our boys home.

 

[CitizenPained]

It's the Taliban rattling their sabres.

They could use an upgrade.

 

[waltky]

Payback for Mumbai...

Bomber targets service for Afghan leader's brother
14 July`11 — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing four people among those who had gathered for a memorial service for the president's assassinated half brother, the government said.

Among those killed in the explosion in Kandahar city was Hekmatullah Hekmat, the head of the clerical council for the province, the Interior Ministry said. At least 13 people were wounded, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Sarra Jamai mosque in the southwest of the city had been filled with relatives and friends of the president's half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was killed earlier this week. They were offering their condolences to the family of the provincial leader.

Wali Karzai was shot at close range by a confidant on Tuesday, leaving President Hamid Karzai without a powerful ally in Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold and the site of recent military offensives by the U.S.-led military coalition. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, which has threatened to create a power vacuum in the south.

Source

 

[Trajan]

well, this certainly is interesting;

Bodyguard who killed Karzai's brother was trusted CIA contact

The bodyguard who assassinated President Hamid Karzai's brother had been working closely with US Special Forces and the CIA before he was recruited by the Taliban, raising fears over the Islamist movement's increasingly sophisticated intelligence apparatus which has managed to threaten the inner circles of power in Afghanistan.

Sardar Mohammad, who shot Ahmed Wali Karzai at his home in Kandahar City on Tuesday, also held regular meetings with British officials, and had two brothers-in-law serving in a CIA-run paramilitary unit, the Kandahar Strike Force, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

more at-

Bodyguard who killed Karzai's brother was trusted CIA contact - Asia, World - The Independent


as I said in posts 2 and 4, this will go downhill and more quickly than many of us may imagine....

 

[waltky]

Gettin' closer and closer to Karzai...

Top Karzai Aide, Lawmaker Killed in Kabul
July 17, 2011 - Afghan officials say a senior adviser to President Hamid Karzai and a member of parliament have been killed during an attack in the capital, Kabul.

The officials said Jan Mohammad Khan, a former governor of southern Uruzgan province and a close adviser to Mr. Karzai, was killed along with Uruzgan lawmaker Mohammad Ashim Watanwal late Sunday when two men wearing suicide vests attacked Khan's home in western Kabul's Karte Char district.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Khan of helping American forces. The attack came less than a week after the assassination of Mr. Karzai's brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, in southern Kandahar province.

In other violence Sunday, Afghan and foreign troops killed at least 10 Taliban fighters in a school in the Khewa district of eastern Nangarhar province. Officials said the coalition forces targeted the militants using ground troops and airstrikes. No children were in the school during the attack.

Two NATO service members were killed in a bomb blast in the south Sunday, while two people were killed and seven wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a wedding party in northern Baghlan province.

Source

 

[Trajan]

yup.

back in jan. the taliban said they were gonna take the fight to kabul and they are. by the time we leave karzai will be hanging by a thread the ways its going.

 

[freedombecki]

Left to their own devices, the Taliban would seek a major vengeful jihad against America if they should take Afghanistan back. They're trouble.

 

[High_Gravity]

yup.

back in jan. the taliban said they were gonna take the fight to kabul and they are. by the time we leave karzai will be hanging by a thread the ways its going.

If it gets bad enough Karzai should leave the country, the last Afghan President that stayed did get disemboweled and hung from a light pole, you can bet Karzai remembers that and has an evacuation plan in place with another country to stay in.

 

[High_Gravity]

Left to their own devices, the Taliban would seek a major vengeful jihad against America if they should take Afghanistan back. They're trouble.

Your probably right but what I see happening is another civil war when we pull out until the Afghan government completely falls down, and than the remnants of the Northern Alliance and other Afghan warlords will fight the Taliban like they did until we got there in 2001. The Taliban will have their hands full for a while.