Afghan president at kingpin brother's funeral

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 13 (BSS/AFP) - Afghan President
Hamid Karzai was Wednesday to lead mourners at the funeral
of his half-brother, gunned down a day earlier by his own head of
security in the southern city of Kandahar.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, dogged for years by allegations of unsavoury links to the country's lucrative opium trade and private security firms, and reportedly on the payroll of the CIA, was the government's key powerbroker in the south.

Known by his initials "AWK", Karzai's brother's death deprives NATO of a key if controversial ally in Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace and heartland of the Taliban, as international troops begin to withdraw from Afghanistan.

The funeral was to be held at the city's Madigak Palace at 7:00am (0230GMT).

Security -- already tight in the violent province -- was stepped up for the morning funeral prayers as speculation mounted about the motive behind the shooting of the younger Karzai, who was 49, in his own home.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned the Afghan president to offer her condolences and said Washington remained "committed to supporting the government and people of Afghanistan in their struggle for peace".

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, but the region's police chief and other officials said AWK was shot dead by the long-serving chief of his family's personal protection force.

Kandahar police chief Abdul Razeq identified the assassin as Sardar Mohammed, commander of 200 bodyguards who provided security for the younger Karzai's family in the flashpoint city for seven years.

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