The brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has been killed.
The death of Ahmad Wali Karzai, who was one of the most powerful men in southern Afghanistan, was confirmed by an official and a family member.
‘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.
A cousin of Mr Wali Karzai, who asked not to be named, also confirmed to Reuters that he had been killed.
Initial details are sketchy, with a family friend, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said he was killed by a bodyguard while entertaining guests at home. An Afghan intelligence official said he was shot dead by a guest.
A health official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Wali Karzai had been shot dead.
'He was shot dead at his house by one of the visiting guests not by a body guard, at around 11.30am (8am Irish time),' said an official at Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security.
The family friend said a number of Mr Wali Karzai's guests were also killed in the gunfire, but there was no immediate confirmation of who or how many.
The assassination came just before Hamid Karzai received French President Nicolas Sarkozy on a surprise visit to Afghanistan where he announced that Paris would recall 1,000 soldiers by the end of next year.
Mr Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was a deeply controversial figure, dogged by allegations of links to Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade and private security firms.
US documents leaked by internet whistleblower WikiLeaks late last year painted him as a corrupt drugs baron, lifting the lid on Western thoughts long kept private on the president's younger half brother's tainted record.
