News - Afghanistan

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Special Forces had close working relation with the bodyguard who shot dead the younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week.

Before Sardar Mohammad, the bodyguard who assassinated Ahmad Wali Karzai, was assigned by the Taliban to kill head of Kandahar Provincial Council and the powerful figure in turbulent southern Afghanistan, he held regular meetings with British officials as well, the Independent newspaper has reported.

Sardar Mohammad had two brothers-in-law serving in a CIA-run paramilitary unit, the Kandahar Strike Force, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

"Our investigation shows that for the last three months he was acting out of character, not normal, erratic," the newspaper quoted Mahmoud Karzai as saying. "He wasn't sleeping, he was nervous, he was getting phone calls in the middle of the night, and our information shows he made a trip to Quetta [in Pakistan] and met with some Taliban. His father was a mullah. So all these things combined, plus the Taliban claim of responsibility... but our preliminary investigation indicates this was the work of the Taliban."

Ahmad Wali Karzai was shot dead on Tuesday when he was asked for personal discussion by one of his security guards during a meeting with tribal elders and officials.

After he left the meeting for another room, a couple of fires rang out and then he was found dead.

Right after the incident the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Experts believe the death of Ahmad Wali Karzai has left a vacuum in violence-hit southern Kandahar province at a time the country is going through some of the critical conditions with Afghan security beginning to take security lead and foreign forces flying back home.