Afghan suicide blast at wedding targets ethnic leader

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up among guests at a wedding hall Saturday in northern Afghanistan, killing 23 people including a prominent ex-Uzbek warlord turned lawmaker who was the father of the bride.

The attack was the latest to target top figures from the country's minority groups and dealt a blow to efforts to unify ethnic factions amid growing concerns that the country could descend into civil war after foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014.

Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek who commanded forces fighting the Soviets in the 1980s and later became a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding Saturday morning when the blast ripped through the building in Aybak, the capital of Samangan province.

Three Afghan security force officials also were among those killed. About 60 other people, including government officials, were wounded in the attack, which left the wedding hall's black-and-white tile floor covered with shattered glass, blood and other debris.

Chairs adorned with pink fabric lay strewn across the site. Dead bodies were piled into the back of Afghan security force vehicles. Afghan Army helicopters ferried some of the wounded from the wedding hall, which has a facade of pillars painted a festive light green and pink.

The bride and groom survived, but never got the chance to exchange vows.

An eyewitness described a gruesome scene after the explosion.

"I came out and saw 40 to 50 people everywhere on the ground — wounded and killed," said Salahuddin, who uses one name which is common in Afghanistan. "I could not exactly count the number of people killed. I could see people with missing legs and body parts all around me."

It was the latest in a string of deadly attacks around the country that threaten to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. In one of the worst, Taliban fighters attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul on June 22, killing 18 people. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, including three U.S. soldiers, in the eastern city of Khost.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in a phone call that the Taliban neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attack.

Jan Kubis, the United Nation's top official in Afghanistan, said the U.N. had documented an increase in the number of government and elected officials who have been targeted by militants in the past six months. He did not provide statistics, but two government officials were assassinated on Friday — the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs director in Laghman province and the mayor of Shindand district in Herat province.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, saying it was "carried out by the enemies of Afghanistan." He ordered a team from Kabul to fly to the area to investigate.

Makhdum Muhibullah Furqani, a lawmaker from Samangan, said the attack was likely organized by the Taliban or by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The IMU, which was formed in 1991, originally aimed to set up an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. It later expanded its goal to seeking an Islamic state across Central Asia.

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 upper floors of the three-story wedding hall when the bomber struck.

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. "It was a big explosion. There were bloody bodies all around the first floor. The explosion was so strong. There were people even on the third floor who were wounded."

"There was dark smoke all around. After about 10 minutes, the people were able to see the bodies and start helping with the wounded," he said.

Samangani became famous during Afghanistan's fight against the Soviets, who left the country in 1989 after a 10-year occupation. He became a member of parliament last year and was considered a key leader in Samangan and northern Afghanistan. He was a former military commander under Northern Alliance general Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful Uzbek warlord.

Also on Saturday, two NATO service members were killed in the east — one in an insurgent attack and the other as a result of a nonbattle related injury.

Associated Press Writers Amir Shah and Patrick Quinn in Kabul contributed to this report

By DEB RIECHMANN and RAHIM FAIEZ The Associated Press

By DEB RIECHMANN and RAHIM FAIEZ
The Associated Press