Karzai Cousin Killed by Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan --- KABUL, Afghanistan — Hashmat Khalil Karzai, a cousin of President Hamid Karzai and a powerful supporter of the presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, was killed by a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday as he greeted well-wishers at his home, government officials and a witness said. -- Mr. Karzai was killed instantly when a young man embraced him and set off a bomb in his turban, according to these accounts of the attack, in Kandahar Province. -- The bombing comes as political and security tensions have been rising in Afghanistan. Insurgent attacks in Kandahar Province in recent days have rattled the population, which had only relatively recently begun to enjoy a period of peace and security. The country is also mired in political uncertainty as the presidential runoff election between Mr. Ghani and his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, has been halted amid allegations of widespread fraud and threats of violence, forcing organizers to conduct a full audit of the June poll. -- Neither the Taliban nor anyone else has claimed responsibility for the attack. -- Mr. Karzai’s death is a clear blow to the Ghani campaign: he ran Mr. Ghani’s campaign in the south and at the same time secured a seat on the provincial council in the April election. His brother Hekmat Karzai has been a close adviser in Kabul to Mr. Ghani during the campaign. -- “With immense shock, we’ve found out abt the death of dear Hashmat Karzai,” Mr. Ghani said in a statement posted by his Twitter account. A second post read: “His loss has left a void. He’ll be missed!” -- The governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, also expressed his sadness. “Hashmat was a big wall for Kandahar,” he said. -- The bomber had mingled with elders and local people who came to greet Mr. Karzai at his home on the second day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday. “The enemy of Afghanistan is always misusing our culture and religion by carrying out cunning and un-Islamic acts,” Mr. Wesa said. -- President Karzai also condemned the attack and expressed his condolences to friends and relatives of his cousin. “Like other Afghans that are being killed daily by these terrorist attacks, our family is not the exception and we accept this sacrifice,” he said in a statement issued by the palace. -- Hashmat Karzai, 45, was a colorful character who kept a tamed lion in a fortress home he built in the family village of Karz, on the southwest side of the city of Kandahar. He had returned from the United States after the fall of the Taliban and ran a security firm, winning major American contracts. - More, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/30/world/asia/hashmat-karzai-killed-by-suicide-bomber-in-kandahar.html?ref=world&_r=0