Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was shot dead (al-Jazeera) by a security official visiting his house in Kandahar on Tuesday morning. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the murder, but Afghan officials insisted the man, Sardar Mohammad, was a longtime confidante of Karzai's.
Wali Karzai, a formidable powerbroker in the southern province of Kandahar--the Taliban's strategic base and locus of the U.S. military surge--had been accused by the United States of having ties to southern Afghanistan's lucrative narcotics trade and engaging in other corrupt practices. However, over the past year, U.S. officials courted his support, seeing him as necessary for stability (WSJ) in the fragile southern region.
The murder undermines the power structure (NYT) in southern Afghanistan--widely understood to be built around the Karzai family--and laid the groundwork for a power struggle to replace Wali Karzai. Stability in the region is likely to be further challenged as the United States prepares to reduce troop levels.
President Karzai confirmed his brother's death (WashPost) at a news conference, noting, "This is the life of the people of Afghanistan."
Analysis:
Ann Marlowe of the Hoover Institution challenges the prevailing concept of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan as a "war of perceptions."
President Barack Obama's decision to remove thirty thousand troops from Afghanistan in just over a year heightens the difficulty in securing the east and south of the country against far-from-defeated Taliban forces, writes CFR's Max Boot.
Obama should pursue a more sweeping troop drawdown in Afghanistan that focuses a residual force on counterterrorist operations, and helps Washington devote more resources to fixing severe domestic problems, says CFR President Richard N. Haass.
No comments:
Post a Comment