At least 39 people were killed by a huge explosion at a wedding in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, where NATO troops are massing to dislodge the Taliban from their fiefdom.
A further 73 people were wounded after suspected Taliban insurgents last night detonated a mine at the gathering in Nagahan, a village in Kandahar provinces Arghandab district, Fazl Ahmad Shirzad, deputy provincial police chief, said in a phone interview on Thursday.
The mine exploded at about 9:15 p.m. when the men and children were eating dinner, Shirzad said. The explosive device was likely planted before the celebrations started, he said. The groom, Abdullah Aka, was a member of an anti-Taliban militia in the rural district, the New York Times reported.
"A suicide bomber went inside the party where hundreds of people were sitting and blew himself up," a police official said. A Kandahar policeman said many of the guests had links to local police officials or a local militia, which was why it was likely targeted by the Taliban.
In the immediate aftermath, he said, some panicked guests mistakenly thought the party had been struck by an air raid.
U.S. and Afghan forces are building a military offensive, combined with efforts to improve governance and the economy, in Kandahar, where President Hamid Karzais brother heads the governing council. Kandahar was the base for the Taliban when they ruled the country before the invasion that followed the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.
The bombing comes after a deadly week for international troops fighting the insurgents. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late yesterday the past few days in Afghanistan had been especially bloody with more than 20 deaths among coalition soldiers.
"Sadly, there will be more casualties — of that I am certain," Mullen said, according to the text of a speech he gave to the Asia Society Washington. "The Taliban is feeling the pressure already imposed upon it by the surge, but I have every expectation that they will continue to resist."
Troop Numbers
The number of American troops in Afghanistan surpassed those in Iraq in May by about 94,000 to 92,000, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Four U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday when their helicopter was brought down by hostile fire in the southern province of Helmand. U.S. troop fatalities in and around Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2001 have reached 1,029, according to iCasualties.org, a nongovernmental website that tracks American war deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A conference of 1,600 tribal elders and Afghan leaders earlier this month asked the Karzai government to name a panel for peace talks with the Taliban even as the insurgents rejected any compromise and fired rockets at the meetings venue.
Obama Pullback
Karzai’s main backer, the U.S. government, is strengthening military offensives against the Taliban in Kandahar even as it voiced support for the reconciliation process.
The offensive is intended to weaken the guerrillas before the Obama administration begins a promised pullback of some U.S. troops from the country next year.
The U.S. and its allies aim to reverse Taliban gains and train enough Afghan soldiers, police and civil servants to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011. President Barack Obama will conduct a review of progress in December.
Mullen said May 30 that the battle for control of Kandahar province will prove critical to securing the nation and that the U.S. will know the success of the effort by the end of the year.
I liken Kandahar to Baghdad during the surge, Mullen said on CNNs State of the Union program.
Civilians are often caught up in attacks on security forces nationwide. A Taliban suicide bomber struck a NATO military convoy in the capital, Kabul, on May 18, killing 18 people, including civilians and six foreign troops.