KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide-bomb blast ripped through a packed wedding hall late Saturday night in Afghanistan's capital, killing at least 63 people, an Afghan official said today.
Another 182 civilians were wounded in the explosion, government spokesman Feroz Bashari said. Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi confirmed the toll.
The Taliban have condemned the attack and denied any involvement in the blast, which carried the hallmarks of an assault by the local affiliate of the Islamic State organization.
The blast occurred in a western Kabul neighborhood that many in the minority Shiite Muslim Hazara community call home, and the Islamic State affiliate has claimed responsibility for some attacks against the community in the past.
Rahimi said the attacker set off explosives among the wedding participants.
The blast occurred near the stage where musicians were stationed, and "all the youths, children and all the people who were there were killed," witness Gul Mohammad said. One of the wounded, Mohammad Toofan, said that "a lot of guests were martyred."
"There are so many dead and wounded," said Ahmad Omid, a survivor of the attack, adding that about 1,200 guests had been invited to the wedding of his father's cousin. "I was with the groom in the other room when we heard the blast, and then I couldn't find anyone. Everyone was lying all around the hall."
Outside a local hospital, families wailed. Others were covered in blood.
Kabul's huge, brightly lit wedding halls are centers of community life in a city weary of decades of war, with thousands of dollars spent on a single evening.
"Devastated by the news of a suicide attack inside a wedding hall in Kabul. A heinous crime against our people; how is it possible to train a human and ask him to go and blow himself (up) inside a wedding?!!" Sediq Seddiqi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said in a Twitter post.
The blast comes at a time of uncertainty in Afghanistan as the United States and the Taliban work to reach a deal to end a nearly 18-year war.
The Afghan government has been sidelined from those discussions, and Seddiqi said earlier Saturday that his government was waiting to hear results of President Donald Trump's meeting Friday with his national security team about the negotiations. Top issues include a U.S. troop withdrawal and Taliban guarantees not to let Afghanistan become a launching pad for global terror attacks.
A Section on 08/18/2019