US condemns Karzai brother's murder

The US administration "condemns in the strongest possible terms the murder of President Karzai's half-brother in Kandahar," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

He said the administration also sent its condolences to the family of Ahmed Wali Karzai, a controversial figure whom US officials had counted on to stand against the Taliban in Kandahar, the group's spiritual home.

The younger Karzai was gunned down earlier Tuesday in his own home, and the Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the killing. A provincial police chief said he was shot dead by a long-serving senior bodyguard.

Ahmed Wali Karzai was the government's key powerbroker in the south, and his murder deprives NATO of a vital if controversial ally.

He had been dogged by allegations of corruption and drugs links and was reported to have been on the CIA payroll.

But despite his unsavory reputation he played a crucial role for Americans in Kandahar, perhaps the toughest battlefield in 10 years of war and the focus of a troop surge last year.

The US State Department also condemned the murder, with department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saying "it's not the right way to deal with Afghanistan's problems."

She also stressed there was no causal link between the killing and the troop reduction announced last month by US President Barack Obama.

Obama announced in June that 10,000 US troops would leave Afghanistan this year and all 33,000 forces sent as part of a surge ordered in late 2009 would be home by next summer.

President Karzai welcomed the announcement at the time as a "good step in their favor and in favor of Afghanistan," while the Taliban saw it "only as a symbolic step."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011