A cousin and close associate of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated on Tuesday by a suicide bomber, who hid his explosives under his turban, a provincial official said.
The bomber walked up to the home of Hashmat Khalil Karzai to greet him after morning prayers for the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday, and detonated the explosives after shaking hands with the president’s cousin, said the official.
Tuesday’s attack took place at the reception room for guests at the Karzai family home in southern Kandahar province’s district of Karz, according to Dawa Khan Minapal, the Provincial Governor’s spokesman.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
It was not the first time that Karzai’s family members have been targeted. The President’s powerful half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, who was the head of the provincial council, was slain in his home in Kandahar by his bodyguard in July 2011.
