Taliban claim killing of key Karzai adviser

Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of southern Uruzgan province and a key ally of the embattled president, was killed along with an MP for Uruzgan.

"We killed Jan Mohammad Khan. We made him pay for his deeds," Taliban\'s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahed, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Khan, a long-standing Karzai ally and key tribal chieftain, was killed in the attack that the interior ministry said was carried out by two assailants.

The gunmen targeted the house late Sunday and a standoff lasted until the early hours of Monday. One police officer and the two assailants were also killed, the interior ministry said.

The assassination comes less than a week after the president\'s half-brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was shot dead by a close friend at his home in the southern province of Kandahar, in an attack also claimed by the Taliban.

A senior government official speaking anonymously told AFP that Khan\'s death was a major blow for the US-backed leader.

"He was very close to the president. His death is as important as Ahmad Wali Karzai\'s death," the official said.

Just hours before Sunday\'s attack, a ceremony was held in central Bamyan province marking the start of the transition of security duties from NATO forces to Afghans, a process aimed at leaving the country free of foreign troops by 2014.

Sunday was also the last day in Afghanistan for top US commander General David Petraeus.

Police were still searching for one of the attackers at the residence near the parliament building early Monday, but the area was quiet according to witnesses, after sporadic gun battles lasting more than four hours.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said at least one of the gunmen in Sunday\'s raid was dead and it was not clear whether the rest of Khan\'s family had escaped or were stuck inside the besieged residence.

"JMK (Jan Mohammad Khan) and Watanwal have been martyred and also one of the attackers has been killed," he told AFP, adding that the attack began at 8:00 pm (1530 GMT) and that at least one attacker was still at large.

Interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqi said one police officer had been injured in the siege.

"They were not suicide bombers, they were carrying weapons," said Siddiqi, adding that no foreign forces were taking part in the operation.

A senior intelligence official speaking anonymously said it was believed that three people attacked Khan\'s residence.

A government official speaking on condition of anonymity said: "He (Khan) was very close to Karzai. He was as important as AWK (Ahmed Wali Karzai)."

Like Karzai, Khan hailed from a powerful family from the Popalzai tribe in Afghanistan\'s restive south and had been given the role of senior adviser for tribal issues after being sacked from his governorship over corruption claims.

Experts say Khan had a reputation for brutality and double-dealing with tribal rivals, falsely accusing some of being Taliban, and Dutch forces taking over Uruzgan operations in 2006 insisted on his removal as governor.

According to the independent website afghan-bios.info, Khan\'s nephew runs a 3,000-strong militia in Uruzgan that he had inherited from his uncle.

Khan escaped a previous assassination attempt on August 4 when a motorcycle bomb exploded by his convoy in the southern province.

His death could further inflame the volatile politics of southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are battling US-led troops for control of the area.

Analysts have already warned that the killing of Wali Karzai may trigger a turf war for control of the critical southern heartland that could embolden the Taliban and reverse NATO gains.

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