KABUL -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has fired the attorney-general after the country's top prosecutor announced he intended to run for the presidency in elections next year.
Abdul Jabar Sabit, a U.S.-trained lawyer, had returned from exile in 2002, months after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government.
He was appointed attorney-general and announced a war against the endemic corruption in Afghanistan as his top priority. But his efforts have largely been unsuccessful.
The presidential palace said Sabit's political bid was in contradiction with his official duties.
Karzai, who has ruled Afghanistan since the Taliban's fall and won the presidency in 2004 elections, has strongly hinted that he would again run for office.
Karzai has attracted stern criticism at home and among some of his Western allies for relying and accommodating factional leaders in his government. Some of them led armed groups that helped U.S.-led forces in the toppling radical Islamist government.