Influential brother of Afghan president killed at home

By Ismail Sameem and Ahmad Nadeem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The younger half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of the most powerful and controversial men in southern Afghanistan, was shot dead at his home on Tuesday by a senior and highly trusted family security guard.

Ahmad Wali Karzai's assassination will leave a dangerous power vacuum in volatile Kandahar province, the Taliban's birthplace and a focus of recent efforts by a surge of U.S. troops to turn the tide against the insurgency.

He was accused of corruption and ties to the opium trade, but always denied wrongdoing and was strongly supported by his brother whose influence he shored up in the south.

President Karzai may find his reach there is now limited as a potentially violent power struggle plays out among the possible successors to his brother.

"We felt more safe when Ahmad Wali Karzai was around," said Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar who outranked Karzai, but like almost everyone in the province deferred to him.

"His loss will have a negative impact on issues with tribes, and current affairs and security. Kandahar today witnessed the darkest day," Wesa added at a news conference.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, born in 1961. was head of the Kandahar Provincial Council, a largely consultative role, but his power came from his family and tribal connections and his fortune.

He was shot dead by Sardar Mohammad, a senior member of the Karzai family's security team in Kandahar who had known his victim for at least a decade and was based at a compound in the village of Karz, where both brothers were born.