Wedding blast kills top Afghan MP
Source: Agencies |
July 15, 2012, Sunday
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A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up at a wedding hall in northern Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 23 people, including a prominent warlord-turned-politician and three Afghan security force officials, in an attack that deals a setback to efforts to unify the nation's ethnic factions, officials said.
Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek and anti-Soviet guerrilla leader in the 1980s who later became a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding when the explosion occurred in Aybak, the capital of Samangan Province.
President Hamid Karzai said 23 people were killed and about 60, including government officials, were wounded in the attack, which he condemned and said was "carried out by the enemies of Afghanistan." He ordered a team from Kabul to fly to the northern province to investigate the bombing.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast. But in announcing their spring offensive on May 2, the Taliban said they would continue to target those who back the Karzai government and the United States-led international military coalition.
Karzai needs the minority groups - loosely known as the Northern Alliance - to back his efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. But minorities already worry that Karzai, a Pashtun, will make too many concessions to their Taliban enemies to achieve a peace deal to end the war. Whatever support for peace talks that Karzai has won from minorities is likely to erode if militants continue to pick off their leaders one by one.
It was the most recent in a monthlong string of deadly attacks around the country.
On June 22, heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul and killed 18 people during a 12-hour standoff with security forces. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, including three US soldiers, at a checkpoint in a crowded market in the eastern city of Khost.
The violence threatens to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Mohammad Nawab Sherzai, criminal investigations director in Aybak who was helping provide security for the wedding, said most of the local guests had already gathered on the second and third floors of the three-story wedding hall when the morning explosion occurred. Samangani and other relatives and elders had moved to the first floor to welcome additional guests arriving from Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of neighboring Balkh Province.
"Suddenly, the attacker, who was among the guests from Mazar-i-Sharif, got very close to Samangani. He detonated his suicide vest," Sherzai said.
Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek and anti-Soviet guerrilla leader in the 1980s who later became a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding when the explosion occurred in Aybak, the capital of Samangan Province.
President Hamid Karzai said 23 people were killed and about 60, including government officials, were wounded in the attack, which he condemned and said was "carried out by the enemies of Afghanistan." He ordered a team from Kabul to fly to the northern province to investigate the bombing.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast. But in announcing their spring offensive on May 2, the Taliban said they would continue to target those who back the Karzai government and the United States-led international military coalition.
Karzai needs the minority groups - loosely known as the Northern Alliance - to back his efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. But minorities already worry that Karzai, a Pashtun, will make too many concessions to their Taliban enemies to achieve a peace deal to end the war. Whatever support for peace talks that Karzai has won from minorities is likely to erode if militants continue to pick off their leaders one by one.
It was the most recent in a monthlong string of deadly attacks around the country.
On June 22, heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul and killed 18 people during a 12-hour standoff with security forces. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, including three US soldiers, at a checkpoint in a crowded market in the eastern city of Khost.
The violence threatens to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Mohammad Nawab Sherzai, criminal investigations director in Aybak who was helping provide security for the wedding, said most of the local guests had already gathered on the second and third floors of the three-story wedding hall when the morning explosion occurred. Samangani and other relatives and elders had moved to the first floor to welcome additional guests arriving from Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of neighboring Balkh Province.
"Suddenly, the attacker, who was among the guests from Mazar-i-Sharif, got very close to Samangani. He detonated his suicide vest," Sherzai said.
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