钢板网片报价:Assassination rocks Afghans

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Assassination rocks Afghans



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2011-7-14 10:35
Ahmed Wali Karzai, a brother of the Afghan president, in an undated photo, was assassinated Tuesday.



Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's younger half-brother and southern Afghanistan's most influential power broker, was assassinated Tuesday by a trusted security aide, dealing a major blow to the region's stability.


The killing eliminated a man who had earned U.S. praise and condemnation alike, as he helped to combat the Taliban while also allegedly fostering graft and benefiting from the opium trade.


A former Chicago restaurateur who headed the Kandahar provincial council, Mr. Karzai was gunned down in his home in Afghanistan's second-largest city, the Afghan interior ministry said. The gunman was shot dead by Karzai guards, an aide said.


The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the shooting in Kandahar, the volatile province that is the birthplace both of the Islamist movement and President Hamid Karzai. Some U.S. and Afghan officials cast doubt, however, on the idea that insurgents had a role. One U.S. official said there was evidence of a personal dispute between the late Mr. Karzai and the alleged killer, who was going to be sidelined.


The Afghan interior ministry said it is investigating the circumstances of the shooting.


U.S. State Department spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. condemned the killing and offered condolences to the family, but said the U.S. didn't know who was responsible.


The incident threatens to undercut President Karzai's and U.S. interests in southern Afghanistan, the focus of last year's surge, just as the American withdrawal is getting under way. U.S. and coalition plans to withdraw most combat troops by late 2014 depend on establishing reliable Afghan military and police.

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2011-7-14 10:57
Mourners pray over the grave of Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid


"The net effect is the same," said a senior U.S. defense official. "You have a person who was an effective leader…and this person is now out of our effort."


Ahmed Wali Karzai's power was backed by an armed militia, which he used extensively over the past decade to aid Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. military special forces operations throughout southern Afghanistan, services for which he was paid millions of dollars, say current and former U.S. officials.


His New York lawyer, Gerald Posner, said in an email Tuesday that Mr. Karzai "quietly worked behind the scenes to help U.S. intelligence, the Army, Coalition Forces, and Special Forces with invaluable intelligence and assistance."


Mr. Karzai was shot in the head and chest by Sardar Mohammed, a commander of security outposts in Karz, the ancestral village of the Karzai family on the outskirts of Kandahar city. Mr. Mohammed was allowed to walk into Mr. Karzai's fortified Kandahar residence without being checked by security.


"Sardar gave a file to Ahmed Wali Karzai, and when he was signing the file, he took out his pistol and opened fire," said Mr. Karzai's deputy, Agha Lalai Dastagiri, who was a few yards away in the neighboring room during the shooting. Mr. Mohammed was shot dead by Mr. Karzai's bodyguards immediately after the assassination.


Mr. Posner, the lawyer, said Mr. Mohammed had worked for seven years with Mr. Karzai.


Mr. Karzai's death comes after the Taliban has claimed credit for high-profile assassinations of several senior Afghan officials. In recent months, the Taliban killed the Kandahar police chief, the governor of the northern Kunduz province and the police commander for all of northern Afghanistan. Most of these killings were carried out with the help of turncoat insiders.


Mr. Mohammed "was in contact with the Taliban for a year and a half," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi. "We have many infiltrators in the police and they will target such officials in the future."


Mr. Dastagiri, Mr. Karzai's deputy, rejected those claims. He said he believed Mr. Mohammed acted on a personal grievance or because of mental issues.

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2011-7-14 10:57

At a press conference Tuesday in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai accepted condolences as he stood beside French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is visiting Afghanistan.


"This morning my younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed in his home," the president said. "Such is the life of Afghanistan's people. In the houses of the people of Afghanistan, each of us is suffering."


Over the years, Mr. Karzai's ties to the U.S. and Afghanistan's president enabled him to build a power base that ran the gamut from respected tribal elders to convicted drug smugglers. As leader of the provincial council, he enjoyed far more power than the provincial governor. People lined up outside his office to seek favors, resolve disputes or simply wish him well; he was greeting the usual daily crush of visitors shortly before he was gunned down Tuesday.


Critics frequently called Mr. Karzai's style a prime example of the kind of corruption that fueled Afghan resentment and drove people to support the Taliban. The U.S. support for him was seen as the West enabling corruption when militarily expedient, even while professing to combat it, critics said.


Mr. Karzai repeatedly denied profiting from his perch atop a region awash in billions of dollars from Western aid, logistics contracts and opium profits.


For many years, U.S. officials oscillated between relying on Mr. Karzai and condemning him for his alleged misdeeds. One senior official threatened he could be placed on the list of suspected insurgents and criminals to be shot on sight by coalition forces. The competing views of Mr. Karzai underscored the fractious nature of the war effort.


It wasn't until last year, as U.S. surge forces prepared to pour into southern Afghanistan, that then-coalition commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal decided the evidence against Mr. Karzai wasn't conclusive and decided to work with him.


"Everyone down south is questionable. There's no one who's clean. And there aren't too many people who were as willing to help," said a former U.S. official familiar with the decision to back him. In meetings with Americans, Mr. Karzai would often boast of his years living in America, and of the Afghan restaurant he ran in Chicago near Wrigley Field.


Another U.S. official called him a "stalwart defender" of Afghanistan who worked hard to root out terrorists there. "He wasn't perfect, but in a place like Afghanistan, you're not going to find too many Boy Scouts," the official said.


On Tuesday, residents of Kandahar worried about the effect Mr. Karzai's death will have on the region's security. "He was able to solve many tribal disputes. His killing will badly impact Kandahar and the entire south and could increase tensions between the government and tribes," said Rafi Ullah, a 28 year-old bookseller in Kandahar.


Thomas Ruttig, senior analyst at the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, said Mr. Karzai's death could further propel Gen. Abdul Razzik, Kandahar's new police chief. Gen. Razzik, who is illiterate, is also suspected of smuggling drugs and collecting protection money during his time as the border police chief overseeing the Spin Boldak crossing from Pakistan. He denies any wrongdoing.


Gen. Razzik, who said Tuesday his forces were investigating Mr. Karzai's slaying, enjoys U.S. backing because of his ability to clear Taliban strongholds. His men partnered with U.S. Special Forces last year against the insurgents in Kandahar province.


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2011-7-14 10:57

The streets of Kandahar were teeming with U.S. and Afghan security forces Tuesday. According to witnesses, the troops created a cordon nearly a mile long around the late Mr. Karzai's residence, which is located near key government buildings.


Not everybody was mourning.


"The crisis in our country today is because of warlords and criminals like Ahmed Wali," says Ghulam Qadir, a 25-year-old aid worker in Kandahar. "Unfortunately, the international community supports these Afghan warlords."(From WSJ)
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