(Adds quote, details)
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan, July 14 (Reuters) – A suicide
bomber blew himself up at a wedding reception in northern
Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding
40 others, a police spokesman said, making it one of the most
violent days in the country for months.
Influential Afghan politician Ahmad Khan Samangani, who
hosted the party, was also killed in the attack, provincial
governor Khairullah Anosh told Reuters.
“It was Ahmad Khan Samangani’s daughter’s wedding. A suicide
bomber blew himself up, killing and wounding dozens,” Anosh
said.
Afghans in some parts of northern Afghanistan, which is
relatively peaceful compared to volatile southern and eastern
parts of the country, hold ceremonies early in the morning.
Civilians bear the brunt of the violence in Afghanistan,
which is at its worst since the Islamist Taliban government was
toppled by U.S.-led Afghan forces in 2001.
Taliban insurgents fighting against President Hamid Karzai’s
Western-backed government have carried out dozens of suicide
attacks this year.
(Reporting by Bashir Ahmad in Mazar-e-Sharif; Writing by Hamid
Shalizi; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
