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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 IS suicide bomber kills at least 63 at Afghan wedding
A man wails at his brother’s funeral in Kabul yesterday after an Islamic State bomber killed at least 63 people at a wedding in the Afghan capital on Saturday. Photo: Reuters
/ AFP, KABUL
Joy and celebration turned into horror and carnage when an Islamic State （IS） suicide bomber targeted a packed Afghan wedding hall, killing at least 63 people in the deadliest attack to rock Kabul in months, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
The massive blast, which took place late on Saturday in west Kabul, came as Washington and the Afghan Taliban finalize a deal to reduce US military presence in Afghanistan and hopefully build a road map to a ceasefire.
The groom recalled greeting smiling guests in the afternoon, before seeing their bodies being carried out hours later.
The attack “changed my happiness to sorrow,” the young man, who gave his name as Mirwais, told local TV station Tolo News.
“My family, my bride are in shock, they cannot even speak. My bride keeps fainting,” he said. “I lost my brother, I lost my friends, I lost my relatives. I will never see happiness in my life again.”
Afghan Ministry of the Interior spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said that a suicide bomber carried out the attack, with at least 63 people killed and 182 injured.
“Among the wounded are women and children,” Rahimi said.
Afghan weddings are vibrant affairs, with hundreds or often thousands of guests celebrating for hours inside industrial-scale wedding halls where men are usually segregated from women and children.
“The wedding guests were dancing and celebrating the party when the blast happened,” said Munir Ahmad, 23, who was seriously injured and whose cousin was among the dead.
“Following the explosion, there was total chaos. Everyone was screaming and crying for their loved ones,” he told reporters from his bed in a hospital, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds.
The wedding was largely a gathering of Shiites, who are frequently targeted in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, particularly by the IS.
The Sunni extremist group’s Afghan affiliate claimed responsibility for the blast, saying the bomber targeted the wedding because it was Shiite.
Wedding guest Hameed Quresh told reporters the young bride and groom were saying their vows when the bomb went off.
“We fainted following the blast, and we don’t know who brought us to the hospital,” said Quresh, who lost one brother and was himself wounded.
Another guest told Tolo that about 1,200 people had been invited.
With low security, weddings are seen as easy targets.
The attack sent a wave of grief through a city grimly accustomed to atrocities and garnered broad condemnation.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called it “barbaric,” while Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah described it as a “crime against humanity.”
US Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass called it an act of “extreme depravity.”
The attack underscores both the inadequacy of Afghanistan’s security forces and the scale of the problem they face. While the police and army claim they prevent most bombings from ever happening, the fact remains that insurgents pull off horrific attacks with chilling regularity.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
