Could the situation in the Afghan-Pakistan region be any more precarious? Pakistan’s denying Americans visas, expelling military training personnel, and threatening to pull its troops from the Afghan border. Our American government is finally withholding military financial assistance to a country in Pakistan that appears an ally only in title. Afghanistan’s a seemingly never-ending quagmire and our President’s ready to cut and run. And now the “half-brother” of Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzia is gunned down in Kandahar? And oh, by the way, he was tied to everything corrupt, dirty, and broken in the war-torn nation; and yet responsibility for his death has been claimed by the Taliban. Yeah, try and make sense of any of that.
His assailant was Sardar Mohammed, a regular visitor to the residence, and he was killed almost instantly by bodyguards, according to people close to the Ahmed Wali Karzai who declined to be named. Mr. Mohammed was a commander of security posts near Karza just south of the city of Kandahar, according to Mr. Karzai’s driver.
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 powerbrokers across the region, including tribal leaders, elected officials, narcotics smugglers and insurgents.
The Taliban claimed responsibility almost immediately, but several leaders in Kandahar said they doubted the claims.
