Tuesday, July 12, 2011

President Karzai's brother assasinated.


Sad day for Afghanistan. Ahmed Wali Karzai, younger brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, was assassinated this morning. Despite his notorious corruption, he was a force for stability in the region, often acting in the role of a tribal Shaykh, mediating disputes between individuals and groups. More importantly, AWK was a lynchpin of the trans-tribal/trans-regional afghan security network and was essential to the security of Kandahar. Without him, many of the regional alliances may collapse.  A longtime target of Taliban assassins, he had survived several prior attempts on his life, but this one was done by his own head of security – a man who was a family friend and bodyguard for many years.

The impact of this will be huge.

Lots of links to preliminary analysis here:

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2011/07/halfbrother-of-afghan-presiden/

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