An explosion detonated by a suicide bomber ripped through a crowded wedding hall in western Kabul on Saturday night, with witnesses reporting multiple casualties.
“Everyone ran outside shouting and crying,” wedding guest Mohammad Farhag told the BBC.
He said he had been in the women’s section of the hall — men and women are usually separated during Afghan weddings — when he heard a huge explosion in the men’s area.
“For about 20 minutes the hall was full of smoke,” Farhag told the BBC.
“Almost everyone in the men’s section is either dead or wounded. Now, two hours after the blast, they are still taking bodies out of the hall.”
No group had taken responsibility for the attack by Sunday morning.
The attack happened in an area populated mostly by Shia Muslims, the BBC reported.
Shia minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan have repeatedly been targeted by Sunni Mulsim militants — including the Taliban and ISIS, the BBC said.
Kabul’s brightly lit wedding halls can hold hundreds of people.
The explosion shattered more than a week of calm in the Afghan capital.
Ten days ago a Taliban car bomb aimed at Afghan security forces ripped through a busy west Kabul neighborhood, killing 14 people and wounding 145 — most of them women, children and other civilians.
Afghanistan has been plagued by tensions and violence even as the Taliban and the US — which has thousands of troops stationed there — are reportedly working on a peace deal.
With Post wires
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