Suicide bomber kills 40 at Afghan wedding

KANDAHAR // A suicide bomb ripped through a wedding party in full swing in the Taliban's heartland of southern Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said yesterday. The blast occurred late on Wednesday in a housing compound where men had gathered during the festivities, one witness said. Female guests were at a different house that was not hit. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Zemeri Bashary, said children were among the dead and wounded.

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. The groom was among the injured. The attack occurred in Nadahan village in the Argandab district of Kandahar province, considered the spiritual home of the Taliban, and the focus of an expected US military operation. Mr Bashary said the explosion hit the wedding party at about 9pm. He confirmed that it was a suicide attack.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos at the wedding, which had drawn around 400 celebrants including women and children from nearby villages. "Some people were waiting for food, others were dancing inside a big tent, when I heard a deafening blast," a wounded survivor named Aminullah said. "The dust went up in the sky and I saw dead bodies everywhere. Women and children were screaming. I thought it was end of the world."

Citing hospital reports, Kandahar's governor, Tooryalai Wisa, said ball bearings had been used as shrapnel, a hallmark of suicide bombings. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the group carried out the attack. A spokesman for the US military, Col Wayne Shanks, said the deaths were not the result of an air strike, and branded any suggestion to the contrary as "Taliban misinformation". Nato said in a statement that no service members were involved in the incident. Agha Mohammed, who survived the blast, said the guests were all seated for their meal when the explosion occurred, sending a huge fireball into the sky. He said the scale of the destruction caused by the blast was more than was common in a suicide attack.

"We have experience with war and this does not look like a suicide bombing," Mr Mohammed said. At a news conference in Kandahar city, Mr Wisa held up a chunk of metal he said was recovered from the site, describing it as a piece of equipment usually used in suicide bombs. He rejected the Taliban's denial of involvement in the attack. "The Taliban are doing two things at once," he said. "On one side they target people in favour of the government, then at the same time they don't want people to know their real face."

Nato condemned the attack and said it would help Afghan police investigate the cause. "This ruthless violence brought to the Afghan people at what should have been a time for celebration demonstrates the Taliban's sickening and indiscriminate tactics to try to intimidate the citizens of Afghanistan," said Lt Gen Nick Parker, the deputy commander of Nato forces. Nadahan is a farming community on the northern border of Kandahar city. The surrounding district is a major route for insurgents to enter into the city, the commercial hub of the south.

Nato forces have been battling insurgents in Argandab for months in an attempt to gain control of the area, which is expected to be the focus of a summer push to squeeze out the Taliban. * Associated Press, with additional reporting by Reuters