Wedding bomb in Afghanistan wounds 9

At least nine people including children have been wounded in a bomb blast at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan, provincial officials said Friday. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but similar incidents in the past have been blamed on the Taliban, who regard music and other entertainment at wedding parties as unacceptable. "Last night a wedding party was under way in Baghlan-e-Markazi of Baghlan province, and an improvised explosive device under the tent exploded, wounding nine civilians," Gawhar Khan Babur, district governor of Baghlan-e- Markazi, told AFP. He said two of the wounded were in a critical condition. Baghlan provincial police chief Asadullah Shirzad confirmed the attack and said all of the wounded were elderly men and children. No local government officials were present, he said. On Sunday, a roadside bomb blast killed 18 civilians, most of them women and children, as they were travelling in a minibus to a wedding party in central Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Source: AFP