(Image source: The New York Times)
BY MALLORY PERRYMAN
You're watching multisource world news analysis from Newsy.
The so-called King of Kandahar-- the half brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai-- was assassinated in his home Tuesday morning.
“Ahmed Wali Karzai was gunned down by one of his own bodyguards at his home in Kandahar. Wali Karzai was an influential political leader but he’d been plagued by allegations of corruption.” (ABC News)
CNN explains-- those “allegations of corruption” range from his supposed reign as a drug lord-- to his rumored spot on the CIA payroll.
Anchor (CNN): “I think some people would get the impression anyway that he was a guy who played all sides up against the middle. The CIA, the world of drugs in which he was deeply involved and the Taliban themselves...”
Wali Karzi was influential in Afghan politics- but as the Atlantic’s Max Fisher explains-- his death is...
“...a reminder of the complicated web ...contradictions that the U.S. has attempted to navigate for nearly a decade... [he] was a politician working within the system and a criminal working against it...he was a close ally of the U.S. and a tremendous drag on its mission to win over the Afghan people.”
The bodyguard accused of shooting Wali Karzai is thought to be a longtime family friend-- but the Taliban claims, the man was a sleeper agent planted by the terrorist group. TIME’s Joe Klein says-- that’s unlikely.
“The Taliban claimed credit for his murder, but I doubt they had anything to do with it. It was more likely a tribal hit, part of the ever-shifting roundelay of payoffs, blood revenge, broken alliances and power plays that has been the eternal history of Pashtun society.”
The question now is-- what’s next? Here’s what an Afghan war expert tells Fox News.
Gretchen Carlson (Fox News): “So this is a blow for the U.S. in Afghanistan?”
Peter Tomsen (Author “The Wars of Afghanistan”): “Yes. And also the stabilization of Afghanistan.”
A reporter for Mother Jones expands on that perspective- saying, Wali Karzai was perhaps the best option amongst a buffet of bad options.
“Love him or loath him, Ahmed Wali was fluent in the unique, tribal politics of the region, and he held enough clout to bring a variety of competing interests to heel...wiith AWK gone, there are no shortage of regional powerbrokers, mostly of ill repute and some with suspected Taliban ties, who will be eager to fill the power vacuum...”
Wali Karzai was the target of several previous assassination attempts. In an interview last year with CTV, he said he was the Taliban’s “most-wanted” man.
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