Successor brother appointed by Karzai

President Karzai has moved swiftly to give another brother a key role opened by the killing, in what could be a bid to stave off infighting in the volatile south.

Only hours after Ahmed Wali Karzai was buried, the president appointed another brother, Shah Wali Karzai, as de facto leader of the Popalzai tribe to which his family belongs. "Tribal leaders have proposed for me to replace martyred Ahmad Wali Karzai with Shah Wali Karzai as your tribal elder," the president said to hundreds of people at the governor's compound in Kandahar City after the burial. Several elders then stepped forward to place the turban of his murdered brother on Shah Wali Karzai's head.

But Shah Wali Karzai, even as head of the tribe, may struggle to fill the power vacuum created by his brother's death. A businessman and engineer, he is said to lack the wiles of his deceased sibling.