Afghan President’s Brother Assassinated

By Jyoti Thottam | July 12, 2011 | +

Ahmed Wali Karzai (C) talks on the phone as he sits with supporters celebrating the re-election victory of his brother President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar, November 3, 2009. (Photo: Banaras Kahn - AFP - Getty Images)

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger brother of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, according to news reports today. My colleague Joe Klein has a post up already on Swampland about the assassination, which is already a major news story around the world. The younger Karzai was well known to reporters in Afghanistan. Here’s TIME’s two-minute bio of the controversial figure; Robert Baer’s take on whether the CIA should employ such characters; Aryn Baker’s analysis of the controversy and her interview with Hamid Karzai, in which he addresses criticisms of his brother. As the BBC’s Lyse Doucet notes, President Karzai relied on his brother “to consolidate his tribal and political sway in the restive south.” Her interview with the younger Karzai, in which he talks about the death threats against him, is here.

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