Afghan president’s half-brother assassinated in Kandahar

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated by one of his bodyguard ons Tuesday. The Taliban was quick to take responsibility for his killing. Karzai was head of the provincial council in Kandahar and a prominent business broker in the area who had been accused of profiting from the region’s drug trade and taking cuts from lucrative foreign contracts. In a leaked American diplomatic cable, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan said Karzai embodied the country’s corrupt patronage system. President Hamid Karzai was reportedly in tears at the news of his half-brother’s death. In recent months, the Taliban has sent suicide bombers to kill the Kandahar police chief. They also kidnapped the son of the city’s main prison director.

Globe and Mail