46 minutes ago
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Published: July 14, 2012
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan ? Up to two dozen people including a senior warlord-turned-legislator and several police and intelligence officials were killed by a suicide attacker who blew himself up at a wedding in northern Afghanistan Saturday, officials said.
The lone suicide bomber targeted a reception of government dignitaries and guests at a hotel holding a wedding party for the daughter of top parliamentarian Ahmed Khan Samangani in the provincial capital Aybak.
Samangani was killed on the spot, along with a local intelligence chief and some 17 civilians.
Samangani, a key northern ally of President Hamid Karzai, was an influential warlord who rose to prominence during the Afghan resistance to Soviet military occupation during the 1980s.
He was an ethnic minority Uzbek who became a member of parliament last year.
Sayed Ahmad Samay, police commander for western Afghanistan, and Colonel Mohammadullah, an Afghan army division commander in north, died later in hospital of their wounds, the spokesman for Samagan's governor, Seddiq Azizi, said.
Samay is the highest ranking Afghan police official to be killed in 2012.
?The suicide attacker entered the hall where the wedding ceremony of Samangani?s daughter was held, detonating his vest,? Samangan province police official Ghulam Mohammad Khan said.
It is not clear yet how the attacker entered the hall or if he was in police uniform, Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, police spokesman for northern Afghanistan said - adding that nobody had been searched by security forces, due to Samangani?s wish to pay respect to his guests.
There were conflicting initial reports of the death toll.
Ahmadzai said 23 people killed and more than 60 others wounded, but the presidential palace and local officials in Samangan say that 17 people were killed and around 43 injured.
President Karzai has appointed a team to investigate the bombing, a statement said.
?Enemies of Afghanistan once again targeted innocent civilians and a Mujahid, who through his efforts had played a crucial role in forging national unity in the country,? Karzai said in the statement.
Taliban militants, who often carry out attacks on Afghan officials and international troops in Afghanistan, denied involvement in the attack, saying Ahmad Khan had possibly been targeted over personal hostilities.
"Ahmad Khan was an influential figure in the north and undoubtedly had enemies," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said. Mujahid denied his group was responsible for the bombing.
The attack comes a day after a prominent female Afghan administrator - the provincial director of the womens' affairs department in Laghman province - and her husband were killed in a car bombing.
Taliban insurgents have targeted several Afghan officials and civilians in the past, including an attack last month in which 24 civilians were killed in a resort hotel in Kabul.
In May 2011, the senior police commander General Mohammed Daud Daud and a police chief were killed in a bombing of the governor's compound of Takhar. A NATO military commander was also wounded. dpa ms hah tlo Authors: Hafiz Ahmadi and Hares Kakar
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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