Taliban: we killed Hamid Karzai’s brother

“I confirm that Ahmad Wali was killed inside his house,” said Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, where Ahmad Wali Karzai lived and was head of the provincial council.

According to Reuters news agency, a cousin of 49-year-old Ahmad Wali Karzai also confirmed that he had been killed.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the militant group claimed responsibility for his death, adding that he was killed by a Taliban sleeper agent, Mohammad Jan, his bodyguard.

Mr Ahmadi said Ahmad Wali Karzai’s death was good news for Afghanistan because a figure who oppressed the people of Kandahar was now dead.

Another Taliban spokesman told Channel 4 News: “This was part of our sophisticated operations strategy in order to eliminate the indispensible targets.”

One of the most powerful men in Afghanistan

Ahmad Wali Karzai was the elected chairman of the 15-member provincial council in Kandahar Provincial Council and was considered the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan.

Numerous journalists had alleged he was a major player in smuggling heroin and opium out of Afghanistan, and also that he consistently rigged votes. Ahmad Wali Karzai has always denied the allegations.

The New York Times reported in 2009 that Karzai had been receiving payments from the CIA for recruiting the Kandahar Strike Force, an Afghan paramilitary force run by the CIA in the Kandahar region.

Ahmed Wali Karzai had previously survived a number of assassination attempts by Taliban militants and two confirmed attacks against his office in Kandahar, and he himself had claimed that nine suicide bombers had lost their lives trying to assassinate him.