12-07-2011, 09:35 AM
Ahmed Wali Karzai, half brother to the Afghan president and one of the most powerful men in the country, has been killed by one of his own bodyguards.
"I confirm that Ahmad Wali was killed inside his house," Zalmay Ayoubi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, told the Reuters news agency.
Wali Karzai was shot dead by Sardar Mohammad, a bodyguard who regularly visited him, another member of the security team told Al Jazeera.
Mohammad shot Wali Karzai in the stomach and chest as he emerged from a bathroom and was then shot and killed by other bodyguards, the man said.
Wali Karzai was the head of the Kandahar provincial council, but his power extended far further in Afghan business, politics and security. He has been described in various media reports as a "warlord" involved in drug smuggling and as a paid asset of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"He was effectively the super governor of southern Afghanistan," said Al Jazeera's James Bays, who met Wali Karzai on multiple occasions and has reported extensively from the country.
Bays said the Taliban was "almost certainly" responsible for Wali Karzai's killing, which comes two weeks after a spectacular attack by the hardline Islamic movement on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that left 19 people dead.
In response to Karzai's killing, police mobilised a massive response in Kandahar city, according to Kabul-based journalist Matthieu Aikins, who spoke to a resident. Checkpoints were "locked down," helicopters hovered overhead, and the road to the hospital, where Wali Karzai's body was taken, was blocked off, Aikins wrote on Twitter.
Ehsanullah Amiri, a TOLO news producer, wrote on Twitter that a journalist from his network was reporting that Wali Karzai's killer was being held in the hospital.
Rumours of Wali Karzai's involvement in Afghanistan's opium trade have circulated in Afghanistan for years. In 2008, the New York Times reported that the White House, State Department and Central Intelligence Agency had received reports that linked him to the drug business and that they tried to convince Hamid Karzai, the president, to move his brother out of power.
A year later, the Times reported that Wali Karzai had received regular payments from the CIA for the previous eight years, in part to fund an Afghan paramilitary force that operated at the CIA's direction.
"[Wali Karzai's] assassination is a big loss for the president as he helped hold the greater Kandagar region togetherm," Saad Mohseni, the director of the large media group that owns TOLO, wrote on Twitter.
"I confirm that Ahmad Wali was killed inside his house," Zalmay Ayoubi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, told the Reuters news agency.
Wali Karzai was shot dead by Sardar Mohammad, a bodyguard who regularly visited him, another member of the security team told Al Jazeera.
Mohammad shot Wali Karzai in the stomach and chest as he emerged from a bathroom and was then shot and killed by other bodyguards, the man said.
Wali Karzai was the head of the Kandahar provincial council, but his power extended far further in Afghan business, politics and security. He has been described in various media reports as a "warlord" involved in drug smuggling and as a paid asset of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"He was effectively the super governor of southern Afghanistan," said Al Jazeera's James Bays, who met Wali Karzai on multiple occasions and has reported extensively from the country.
Bays said the Taliban was "almost certainly" responsible for Wali Karzai's killing, which comes two weeks after a spectacular attack by the hardline Islamic movement on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul that left 19 people dead.
In response to Karzai's killing, police mobilised a massive response in Kandahar city, according to Kabul-based journalist Matthieu Aikins, who spoke to a resident. Checkpoints were "locked down," helicopters hovered overhead, and the road to the hospital, where Wali Karzai's body was taken, was blocked off, Aikins wrote on Twitter.
Ehsanullah Amiri, a TOLO news producer, wrote on Twitter that a journalist from his network was reporting that Wali Karzai's killer was being held in the hospital.
Rumours of Wali Karzai's involvement in Afghanistan's opium trade have circulated in Afghanistan for years. In 2008, the New York Times reported that the White House, State Department and Central Intelligence Agency had received reports that linked him to the drug business and that they tried to convince Hamid Karzai, the president, to move his brother out of power.
A year later, the Times reported that Wali Karzai had received regular payments from the CIA for the previous eight years, in part to fund an Afghan paramilitary force that operated at the CIA's direction.
"[Wali Karzai's] assassination is a big loss for the president as he helped hold the greater Kandagar region togetherm," Saad Mohseni, the director of the large media group that owns TOLO, wrote on Twitter.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass