Adviser to Karzai murdered

A senior adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai was murdered at his home near the parliament in Kabul, a senior government official said late on Sunday night.



Jan Mohammad Khan, former governor of southern Uruzgan province and a key ally of the embattled president, was killed in an attack.

The killing comes less than a week after the president's half-brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated by a close friend at his home in the southern province of Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban. "He (Khan) was very close to Karzai. He was as important as AWK (Ahmed Wali Karzai)," said a senior official. Like Karzai, Khan hailed from a powerful family from the Popalzai tribe in Afghanistan's restive south.

According to sources, Khan's nephew runs a 3,000-strong militia in Uruzgan. His death will further inflame the volatile politics of the southern region, where the Taliban are battling US-led troops for control of the area.