http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=1044464KANDAHAR, Afghanistan- A bomb ripped through a wedding party for a family with several members in the police force in the Taliban's heartland in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said Thursday.
The blast occurred late Wednesday in a housing compound where men had gathered during the festivities, with female guests at a different house that was not hit, one witness said. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said children were among the dead and wounded. The groom was injured, but both he and the bride survived.
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 attack occurred in Nadahan village in the Argandab district of Kandahar province, considered the spiritual home of the Taliban, and the focus of an upcoming major U.S. military offensive.
Bashary said the explosion hit the wedding party about 9 p.m., and that it was a suicide attack. He said at least 40 people were killed and 74 were wounded in the blast.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the group carried out the attack.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike, and any suggestion otherwise was "Taliban misinformation."
Agha Mohammed, who survived the blast, said the guests were all seated and having a meal when the explosion occurred, sending a huge fireball and smoke 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," Mohammed said.
At a news conference in Kandahar city, provincial Gov. Tooryalai Wesa held up a chunk of metal he said was from the site and described 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," Wesa said. "On one side they target people who are in favor 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. President Hamid Karzai's office called for a thorough investigation.
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 south's commercial hub. NATO forces have been battling insurgents in the Argandab district for months in an attempt to gain control of the area.
Insurgents have often targeted civilian government officials and police in areas under their control and use violence to intimidate civilians. On Wednesday, the Taliban hanged a 7-year-old boy in public in Helmand province, neighboring Kandahar, for alleged spying, a local official said.
In Spin Boldak district, insurgents dragged a local council member, Amir Mohammad Noorzai, from his house Wednesday evening and fatally shot him, said Zalmai Ayoubi, a Kandahar provincial spokesman.
Violence has spiked in Afghanistan this month, with the Taliban stepping up attacks as U.S. commanders gear up for a major operation to clear Kandahar that Washington hopes will be a turning point in the nearly 9-year-old insurgency.
At least 17 U.S. service members have been killed in the past four days, including four Americans who died Wednesday when insurgents in southern Helmand province's Sangin district _ one of the most volatile in the country _ shot down a NATO helicopter.
A total of 29 NATO troops have been killed this month, including 10 on Monday alone _ seven of them Americans. It was the deadliest day for the military alliance in seven months.
Topic: Homicide attack kills 40 at Afghan wedding party (Read 1950 times)