Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was shot and killed inside his home, apparently by one of his own bodyguards, a senior Afghan official said on Tuesday.

Wali Karzai was a key power-broker who helped shore up the president's influence in the southern province of Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency. He will be an immense personal and political loss for the Afghan President.

"I confirm that Ahmad Wali was killed inside his house," said Zalmay Ayoubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province. It was unclear whether he was killed by a bodyguard or by a visiting guest.

An Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed the death of Wali Karzai but did not confirm the identity of the killer.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the killing, saying their agent, a bodyguard of Wali Karzai, killed him.

"This is good news for us and for the nation that we got rid of an oppressor figure who oppressed the people of Kandahar," Ahmadi told German press agency DPA via telephone.

Controversial figure

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.

American documents published by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks late last year revealed that he was seen in some circles as a corrupt drug baron.

Kandahar is a key battleground in the fight to defeat the Taliban insurgency: the United States has poured in thousands of extra troops to take the initiative from the Taliban and bolster the Afghan government.

Author: Joanna Impey (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Nancy Isenson