AP Photo

Afghanistan has suffered a string of significant assassinations over the past two months. The first was Gen. Mohammed Daud Daud, the commander of interior ministry forces in northern Afghanistan. Next was Wali Karzai, the president’s half-brother and chairman of the Kandahar provincial council—a title largely incidental to his status as the most powerful man in the region. Days later, Jan Mohammad Khan—the former governor of Uruzgan province and a close friend and ally of President Karzai—was killed by gunmen at his home in Kabul. And this past Wednesday, a suicide bomber murdered Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haider Hamidi.