KABUL, Afghanistan — For the Americans trying to pacify the south of Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai might prove even more troublesome in death than he was in life.

The younger half brother of President Hamid Karzai, shot dead in his Kandahar home Tuesday by a trusted family associate who was also a commander in the Afghan police force, was the principal power broker in Kandahar province, the ancestral home of the Karzai clan.

His vast influence, rooted in his business and family connections, made him a seemingly indispensible Western ally in a long-volatile region considered pivotal to the success of the American-led military effort. But allegations that Karzai sat at the nexus of corruption and drug-running in Afghanistan’s south made him a liability both to his president-brother and his U.S. patrons.

Word of his violent demise sent shock waves through the province and Afghanistan’s wider political world. The death also raised fears of a chaotic power struggle in Kandahar province, where the Taliban movement was born and where Western troops last year made substantial military gains against insurgents — progress that some U.S. commanders fear could be jeopardized by the impending drawdown of American troops.

A solemn Hamid Karzai described his half brother, who was about 50 years old and the father of five young children, as having been “martyred.”

“Every family in Afghanistan has suffered such pain,” said the president, pale but composed as he appeared at a news conference with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy hours after the shooting. “I hope the miseries of our people will end one day, and peace and stability will reign in our country.”

A provincial spokesman, Zalmay Ayubi, said the assailant was a company commander in the Afghan national police who played an important role in safeguarding Karzai, with direct responsibility for checkpoints surrounding his second home outside the city. Identified as Sardar Mohammad, the gunman had a long association with the family and had previously worked as a bodyguard for another Karzai brother.

The shooting occurred as Karzai was receiving guests at his heavily guarded compound in Kandahar, according to a provincial official who was present in the building. Every day, dozens of supplicants turned up to ask him for help or favors, and turbaned tribal elders would routinely come to discuss business or seek aid in mediating disputes. American military officials often visited the compound as well.

Karzai had left a meeting to go into an adjacent room with Mohammed when the gunshots rang out, said the official. The shooter in turn was almost immediately shot dead by other members of Karzai’s security detail. Karzai was rushed by aides to a nearby hospital, but could not be revived.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing. But the group often makes opportunistic assertions of being behind attacks against the government or NATO forces, and it could not immediately be determined whether the assailant had acted at the group’s behest or had some other motive. Karzai had many personal and political enmities stemming from clan rivalries and the sometimes cutthroat business dealings in which he was involved.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi, in a statement, referred to the killer by name and suggested he had been a sleeper agent for some time. The attack, he said, was aimed at Hamid Karzai’s “puppet regime.”

Ahmed Wali Karzai was the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, but he wielded far more power than his official position would dictate. Critics, including U.S. officials, said he was deeply involved in corruption, some of it stemming from Kandahar’s flourishing narcotics trade.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

In secret diplomatic documents that were disclosed last year by the WikiLeaks website, American diplomats portrayed Karzai — inevitably referred to as “AWK” — as a Mafia-like figure, entangled in a variety of illegal activities. Karzai consistently denied the allegations, and also hotly disputed reports of his involvement with the CIA.

Bearded and thick-lipped, the younger Karzai bore some resemblance to his half-sibling, though with beefier features. Like the Afghan president, he could present a charming and urbane demeanor, speaking nearly unaccented American-style English. But like his famous brother, he also had a temper, and those around him feared his wrath.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

U.S. officials for a time had pressed for Karzai’s removal from his post despite his pro-American stance. But the Afghan president staunchly defended him, and in the end U.S. officials decided that without his assistance, it would be difficult to move ahead with their anti-Taliban campaign in Kandahar. A U.S.-led offensive last summer drove insurgents from longtime strongholds around Kandahar city, producing relative calm.

Karzai “knew that it was in his interest to keep violence at a level that was tolerable to us,” said Robert Lamb, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.”That’s how his bread got buttered.”

Efforts to follow the military push with better governance have proved more problematic, in part due to pervasive corruption and inefficiency. Analysts said Karzai’s death would undoubtedly complicate Western efforts in the south, as tribal rivals and others seek to fill the power vacuum and move in on Karzai’s lucrative holdings.

“There will be a struggle for power there,” said Larry Korb, a former Pentagon official and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. “A lot of the gains that have been made could be lost.”

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Karzai’s death could also prove politically injurious to Hamid Karzai, who has now lost an essential contact with his own ethnic base, the Pashtuns, at a time when the Afghan government must show it can maintain control as the U.S. begins its departure.

“He was able to exert influence in the heartland of the Taliban insurgency,” said John Nagl, president of the Washington-based Center for a New American Security. “It is unclear who has the stature to replace him.”

One potential beneficiary might be Abdul Razaq, the provincial border police chief who has worked closely with U.S. officials and is credited with bringing order to southern Kandahar province.

Official American condolences were carefully worded, condemning the killing and offering sympathies to the Afghan president and his family, even while pointedly avoiding commentary about the dead man himself. U.S. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the outgoing commander of Western troops in Afghanistan, said the NATO force would do all it could to help Afghan authorities bring those involved to justice.

In the dusty streets and bazaars of Kandahar, the word of Karzai’s death spread like wildfire. He was a much-feared figure, and some expressed relief over his death, saying he wielded life-and-death power over too many people. Others expressed apprehension over the struggle for spoils that seemed certain to follow his disappearance from the scene.

“He was a bad character,” said a Kandahar shopkeeper named Assadullah, who uses only one name. “He was more powerful than the police, the governor, than anyone.”

Others, though, hailed him as a unifying force in a region beset by infighting.

“His death will leave a great void,” said Bismillah Afghanmal, a parliamentarian from Kandahar. “He was a decision-maker; he was able to solve problems.”

Assassinations are commonplace in Kandahar, and are sometimes carried out by close associates of the targeted person, or by someone in uniform who can circumvent the extremely heavy security that surrounds all prominent figures. In April, Kandahar’s provincial police chief was killed by an assailant who managed to talk his way into the fortified police headquarters, saying he had an important message for the chief.

Karzai’s compound, located in the center of Kandahar, was one of the city’s most heavily secured complexes, with high concrete barriers and several layers of guards and checkpoints. Most vehicles could not enter, and guests routinely underwent body searches.

Karzai had survived several previous assassination attempts, but said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2009 that he did not dwell on his personal safety.

“I never think about it,” he said. “It’s not something I can worry over.”

———

(Los Angeles Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Christine Mai-Duc in Washington, special correspondent Aimal Yaqoubi in Kabul and a special correspondent in Kandahar contributed to this report.)

———

(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.

Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

—————

PHOTO (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): AFGHAN