KABUL (AP) –The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated by one of his security guards inside his house in Kandahar on Tuesday morning, witnesses and Afghan officials said, a political killing that will reverberate widely through the country and could destabilize a key region in the U.S. military’s campaign against the Taliban.

Ahmad Wali Karzai speaking to international media following a shura (شورا) in Kandahar in June 2010

Ahmed Wali Karzai – head of Kandahar’s provincial council and widely considered the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan – had been meeting with tribal elders and politicians in his heavily fortified home in downtown Kandahar city when a security guard walked into his meeting room and requested a private discussion, according to two people at the house at the time.

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