Body of Karzai’s assassin found hanged in Kandahar city
A suicide bombing at a memorial service for Ahmed Wali Karzai killed Kandahar’s top religious scholar and at least three other attendees. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose younger brother was assassinated earlier this week, was not present at the memorial. Fifteen other people were wounded in the explosion. Meanwhile, the body of the man who allegedly shot Karzai in the head was hanged above a Kandahar street by men in plain clothes. Reports allege that the man, named Sardar Mohammad, had worked alongside Karzai for seven years. Although the Taliban was quick to claim responsibility for the killing of the influential Kandahar power broker, Afghan officials say it is possible that Karzai was killed because of a personal dispute. Earlier, thousands of people had gathered for Karzai’s funeral and burial in the family’s ancestral village of Karz. President Karzai reportedly wept and had to be pulled away from his half-brother’s coffin before it was buried. The suicide bombing and the assassination comes as a UN report says that May and June were the deadliest months for civilians in Afghanistan since 2007.