Suicide bomber blows up Afghan politician at his daughter's wedding

AN Afghan politician was blown up by a suicide bomber yesterday as he was welcoming guests to his daughter's wedding.

Ahmad Khan Samangani was one of at least 23 people killed in the attack in Samangan province. About 60 people were injured.

The blast in a three-storey building in Aybak was so powerful that people two floors up were hurt.

A witness said the attacker, who was among arriving guests, suddenly moved very close to Samangani and detonated his suicide vest.

He added: "It was a big explosion. There were bloody bodies all around the first floor.

"The explosion was so strong, there were people even on the third floor who were wounded."

Samangani was considered a key leader in the north of the country.

He made his name as a guerrilla leader in the 80s during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

In the 90s, he became a military commander in the Northern Alliance, who opposed Taliban rule. He was elected to parliament last year.

Three senior security force officials – a regional police commander, the intelligence chief in the province and a division commander in the army – also died in the blast.

No one had claimed responsibility by last night but the Taliban said in May that they would continue to target those who back president Hamid Karzai's government.

Karzai blamed the attack on "the enemies of Afghanistan".

The bombing came a day after Abdul Salam Rahimi, the mayor of Shindand district in Herat province, was assassinated by two gunmen.

The violence threatens to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, NATO said two of their service members were killed in eastern Afghanistan yesterday – one in an insurgent attack and the other as a result of a non-battle related injury.