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AP / The Hindu / KANDAHAR, July 14, 2011.
Mourners offer prayers at the grave of Ahmad Wali Karzai, the slain half-brother of Afghan President in his family's ancestral village in Kandahar province on Wednesday. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque on Thursday during prayers for Wali Karzai - AP.
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday during prayers for the President’s assassinated half brother, killing four people, the government said.
Among those killed in the explosion in Kandahar city was Hekmatullah Hekmat, the head of the clerical council for the province and a young child, the Interior Ministry said. At least 15 people were wounded.
The Kandahar provincial government said all other high-ranking officials at the ceremony were safe and had been taken to a secure location.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Sarra Jamai mosque in the southwest of the city had been filled with relatives and friends of the Afghan President’s younger brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was killed earlier this week. They were offering their condolences to the family of the provincial leader.
Wali Karzai was shot at close range by a confidant on Tuesday, leaving President Hamid Karzai without a powerful ally in Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold and the site of recent military offensives by the U.S.-led military coalition.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, which has threatened to create a power vacuum in the south.
Wali Karzai was regarded as the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan. He was head of the provincial council, the influential Populzai tribe, and the Afghan president’s confidant and emissary.
Thursday’s attack appeared to give credence to assertions that Wali Karzai’s death was likely to further destabilise an already violent region.
Afghan civilian death toll up 15 per cent: U.N.--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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