KABUL (Reuters) - The death toll in a late Saturday night suicide bombing has risen to 68, including women and children, Afghan sources said on Sunday.
Two Afghan officials said that a suicide bombing targeted a crowded wedding in the capital Kabul, and left dozens dead and hundreds wounded. The spokesman for the Afghan government, Firoz Bashary, that 182 other civilians were wounded in the bombing. A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Nusrat Rahimi, said the explosion occurred in the wedding hall "Dubai City" west of Kabul, in an area inhabited by the majority Shiite. Rahimi confirmed the death toll as some families began burying the victims. For its part, quoted the channel "Talao News" local sources and witnesses that the hall was crowded with guests when the explosion occurred, noting that the joys usually attended by about 400 people. Ten days ago, a car bomb belonging to the Taliban was targeting Afghan security forces in the same area; causing the deaths of 14 people and wounding 145 others, mostly civilians. Remarkably, that attack and the bombing today took place in the same way. Saturday´s blast in western Kabul comes as the United States and the Taliban are in the final stages of negotiations to reach an agreement to reduce US forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban condemned the bombing as "forbidden and unjustified" and denied any involvement. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing so far. Afghan weddings are large, often numbering in the hundreds and sometimes thousands, and are held in huge halls where men are usually separated from women and children.
