Ahmad Wali Karzai Assassinated: A Growing Taliban Trend?

Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was killed earlier Tuesday in his home in southern Afghanistan in an attack for which the Taliban has since claimed responsibility.

With his death, President Hamid Karzai's powerful brother now joins a long list of Afghan officials threatened, attacked or killed by the group. In the past few years, the Taliban launched a number of personal attacks on high and low ranking Afghan officials, often killing dozens of civilians in the process.

In April 2011, U.S. envoy Karl Eikenberry told Reuters he expected "that in the course of the spring and summer we could see continued suicide attacks, perhaps at a higher level then we saw last year." Eikenberry warned of more assassinations on U.S. and Afghan officials, explaining that "It seems to us now that they can't hold forces in the field and they can't fight head-on. They have shifted and they have begun now a very focused terrorist campaign."

Take a look below for an overview of some recent government officials assassinated by the Taliban. For more, checkout al Jazeera's list of assassinations here.