Karzai mourns loss of brother

Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

President Hamid Karzai climbed into his slain half brother’s grave Wednesday and sobbed alongside the coffin, mourning the loss of the most powerful figure in southern Afghanistan before appointing another brother to take the man’s place.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of the Kandahar provincial council and the president’s most powerful emissary in the south, was shot to death Tuesday by a trusted friend at his mansion in Kandahar.

“My message for them [the Taliban] is that my countrymen, my brothers, should stop killing their own people,” President Karzai said after the funeral, which was attended by thousands of mourners.