Afghan President Karzai's adviser shot dead

Jul 17, 2011, 17:34 GMT

Kabul - A close aide of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an influential figure in southern Afghanistan was shot dead in his Kabul home Sunday night, the Interior Ministry said.

Jan Mohammad Khan, Karzai's tribal adviser and a former governor, was killed in the attack, Seddiq Seddiqi, the ministry's spokesman said.

The attackers also killed Hashim Watanwal, a member of lower house of the Afghan parliament, Seddiqi said, adding one attacker had been killed by police.

A policeman was also killed in the gun battle with the insurgents and another was slightly injured, Mohammad Zahir, the chief of the crime investigation branch said.

The two assailants were all killed, according to a police official who spoke on anonymity condition.

The Taliban released a statement after the attack claiming responsibility for the death of the former Uruzgan governor and a parliamentarian along with bodyguards.

Violence has reached a new height in recent months. The first half of this year was the deadliest six months for civilians, with nearly 1,500 killed, the United Nations said in report last week.

Security incidents have also increased, the UN said, and so have high-profile targeted assassinations of Afghan security commanders and politicians.

At least 191 Afghan officials and politicians were killed in the first six month of 2011.

Last week the president's younger half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was killed by his bodyguard in his own house in southern Kandahar city. The Taliban took responsibility for the incident.

The increase in violence comes in wake of security responsibility handover by international forces to Afghan security forces, which started from a relative peaceful province in central Afghanistan on Sunday.

US and its NATO allies have also started withdrawing their troops from war-ravaged Afghanistan, with many still questioning the situation on the ground and the capability of Afghan forces to provide security.

More than 140,000 foreign forces, along with around 300,000 Afghan security forces are fighting the Taliban insurgency, which has stretched to almost a decade now.