July 12, 2011
Half Brother of Afghan President Is Killed in Kandahar
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, CARLOTTA GALL and RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half brother of the Afghan president and the linchpin of the security and power structure in southern Afghanistan, was shot twice in the head and killed Tuesday by a close family associate, according to Karzai family friends who were nearby.
The killing took place as Mr. Karzai was receiving petitioners, provincial colleagues and friends at his house in central Kandahar that was the city's political center of gravity. More than 60 people were there at the time of the shooting, witnesses said.
His assailant was Sardar Mohammed, a regular visitor to the residence, and he was killed almost immediately by bodyguards, said people close to Mr. Karzai who declined to be named. Mr. Mohammed was a commander of security posts near Karz just south of the city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai's driver said.
His motivations were not immediately clear. But whether they were personal or political, the killing amounts to a direct blow to the power of President Hamid Karzai, who depended on his half brother's unchallenged influence in southern Afghanistan to maintain the Karzai family's nexus of connections to power brokers across the region, including tribal leaders, elected officials, narcotics smugglers and insurgents.
Scores of people visited Ahmed Wali Karzai every day to seek his advice and support on business matters, political dealings and tribal disputes. The killing immediately created a vacuum of authority in Afghanistan's important Pashtun region, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, and it appeared likely to set off a struggle for control as members of the Karzai family and leaders from other influential clans jockey for power.
Some Western officials said they anticipated the possibility of more bloodletting, an expectation that underscored the country's persistent volatility as coalition forces prepare to hand over full responsibility for the security of some areas to Afghans and as the United States begins drawing down its forces.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, but several leaders in Kandahar said they doubted the claims.
President Karzai held a news conference in Kabul with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France barely two hours after the shooting and, speaking in a steady voice, confirmed the death of his half brother, who was about 48.
"This is the life of Afghan people, this sorrow is in every Afghan home, everyone of us has this sorrow," he said.
He then turned to Mr. Sarkozy and said, "We welcome Mr. Sarkozy and hope he forgives us for not speaking with a smile today."
The shooting happened at 11 a.m., witnesses said. Mr. Karzai was shot twice in the head with a pistol at point-blank range. A provincial official, Hajji Agha Lalai, was in the next room at the time and helped carry Mr. Karzai on a makeshift stretcher to a car and accompanied him to the hospital.
"I was holding him and I was not very sure he would survive," he said. "It was confirmed in the hospital that he was dead."
Mir Wali, a former legislator from Helmand who said he met with Mr. Karzai for about 30 minutes just before he was killed, was on the second floor of the building when the shooting started. "We came out and we saw Ahmed Wali being carried out and Sardar Mohammed lying on the floor," he said. "Shooting was continuing."
Ahmed Wali Karzai was most certainly a divisive figure. To many, not least the president, he was indispensible to maintaining the influence of the government -- and the Karzai family -- in the south. Throughout much of the time since the American invasion, he was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency, current and former American officials said in 2009, receiving regular payments for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force.
But he was also a major source of contention between American diplomats and President Karzai. Ahmed Wali Karzai repeatedly denied any links to corruption or drug trafficking. But for years the military believed that he was at the center of the government-linked corruption that has generated deep resentments in southern Afghanistan, swelling public anger and the ranks of the Taliban, and undercutting international efforts to establish accountable democratic leadership in Afghanistan.
President Karzai was nonetheless a stalwart supporter of his half brother, defending him strongly when he was accused by opponents and Westerners of involvement with the drug trade and corrupt security companies.
According to three American military officials, in April 2009 Gen. David D. McKiernan, then the top American commander in Afghanistan, told subordinates that he wanted them to gather any evidence that might tie the president's half brother to the drug trade. "He put the word out that he wanted to 'burn' Ahmed Wali Karzai," one of the military officials said.
Ultimately, though, the military said it could not gather enough hard proof to convince other American officials of the alleged crimes, and backed off efforts to remove Ahmed Wali Karzai from power.
His extensive role as a power broker in the south gave him many enemies as well, not least among the Taliban. Ahmed Wali Karzai survived at least one other assassination attempt. In May 2009, he said his motorcade was ambushed by Taliban gunmen as it traveled from eastern Afghanistan toward the capital, Kabul. One of his bodyguards was killed in the hail of fire from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
A month earlier, five suicide bombers stormed the provincial council offices in Kandahar and killed 13 people, including 2 officials in the provincial government. Ahmed Wali Karzai was not in the building at the time.
Jack Healy, Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting.