Suicide bomber kills 40 at wedding
Source: Agencies |
June 11, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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A SUICIDE bomb ripped through a wedding party for a family with ties to police in the Taliban's heartland in Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said yesterday.
The Taliban denied carrying out the attack, but strong suspicion fell on the insurgent group because of previous attacks and killings of people seen as allied with the government or Afghan security forces.
The blast hit in an area that is largely considered a Taliban haven, and village residents said they believed they were attacked in an air bombardment. Mohammad Rassool, a cousin of the groom, said helicopters were circling above the compound before the explosion.
NATO said no service members from the alliance were involved or operating in the area at the time of the explosion. United States military spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike.
New British Prime Minister David Cameron - making his first visit to Afghanistan since being elected last month - joined President Hamid Karzai in condemning the attack. The two talked in Kabul on Wednesday about the progress of the nearly nine-year-old war.
Cameron, whose nation is the second largest contributor of NATO forces in Afghanistan with 10,000 troops, said 2010 was "the vital year" for showing that the US-led counterinsurgency was working.
"This is the year when we have to make progress - progress for the sake of the Afghan people, but progress also on behalf of people back at home who want this to work," Cameron told a joint news conference with Karzai.
Cameron, whose coalition government is considered less invested in the war than its Labour predecessor, ruled out sending more British forces. "The issue of more troops is not remotely on the UK agenda," he said.
The bomb blast late on Wednesday almost completely flattened the outer wall of a compound in the Arghandab district of Kandahar where male wedding guests had gathered for a meal. The windows and walls of the mud-brick dwellings were shattered and cracked. Women guests at the party were in another compound that was not hit by the explosion, witnesses said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said children were among the dead and wounded, and that it was a suicide attack. He said at least 40 people were killed and 74 were wounded. The groom was among the injured.
The family that was attacked included a number of Afghan police officers. The groom's brother and two of his cousins were in the police force, according to another cousin, Mohammad Alkozay.
"This is a crime of massive inhuman proportions against civilians," Karzai told the news conference.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the group carried out the attack.
Kandahar and particularly districts like Arghandab are the focus of an upcoming major NATO military operation to squeeze the Taliban out of their southern strongholds.
The Taliban denied carrying out the attack, but strong suspicion fell on the insurgent group because of previous attacks and killings of people seen as allied with the government or Afghan security forces.
The blast hit in an area that is largely considered a Taliban haven, and village residents said they believed they were attacked in an air bombardment. Mohammad Rassool, a cousin of the groom, said helicopters were circling above the compound before the explosion.
NATO said no service members from the alliance were involved or operating in the area at the time of the explosion. United States military spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike.
New British Prime Minister David Cameron - making his first visit to Afghanistan since being elected last month - joined President Hamid Karzai in condemning the attack. The two talked in Kabul on Wednesday about the progress of the nearly nine-year-old war.
Cameron, whose nation is the second largest contributor of NATO forces in Afghanistan with 10,000 troops, said 2010 was "the vital year" for showing that the US-led counterinsurgency was working.
"This is the year when we have to make progress - progress for the sake of the Afghan people, but progress also on behalf of people back at home who want this to work," Cameron told a joint news conference with Karzai.
Cameron, whose coalition government is considered less invested in the war than its Labour predecessor, ruled out sending more British forces. "The issue of more troops is not remotely on the UK agenda," he said.
The bomb blast late on Wednesday almost completely flattened the outer wall of a compound in the Arghandab district of Kandahar where male wedding guests had gathered for a meal. The windows and walls of the mud-brick dwellings were shattered and cracked. Women guests at the party were in another compound that was not hit by the explosion, witnesses said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said children were among the dead and wounded, and that it was a suicide attack. He said at least 40 people were killed and 74 were wounded. The groom was among the injured.
The family that was attacked included a number of Afghan police officers. The groom's brother and two of his cousins were in the police force, according to another cousin, Mohammad Alkozay.
"This is a crime of massive inhuman proportions against civilians," Karzai told the news conference.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the group carried out the attack.
Kandahar and particularly districts like Arghandab are the focus of an upcoming major NATO military operation to squeeze the Taliban out of their southern strongholds.
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