By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Weddings, once a sacred ceremony, fall victim to tragedy as the Taliban indiscriminately attacks civilians. On Wednesday, in Afghanistan’s Kandahar’s southern province, 39 people were killed and 73 others were wounded.  The explosion came during a wedding dinner, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., striking the area where the men and boys were dining separately from the women. All the casualties were men or boys, village officials said.

Toror Yalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar, told Al Jazeera that a survivor had said a car bomb was the cause of the explosion.  “We don’t have any women casualties. Most of them are adult men and some are young children,” he said.  The man getting married was a policeman from one of the checkpoints in the area, the governor said.  The groom was one of those wounded in the attack, according to his brother, Mohammad Zanif.  “We don’t know what happened.  There was an enormous explosion and as a result everyone there was either killed or injured,” he told AFP.

The International Security Assistance Force confirmed the bombing but had no information on casualties.  They and Afghan forces have secured the area.  It is unclear what caused the blast or why the wedding was targeted.  No one has yet said they planted a device.  Last week, Afghanistan held a national peace council and endorsed a plan to seek peace with the Taliban. But violence has continued unabated.

Relatives of the wounded gathered at an area hospital and local television appealed for people to donate blood to help treat the injured. Local television appealed to people for blood donations to help those injured.  Although the surrounding district is a base for the Taliban, the families at the wedding were not known to have links with the authorities or security forces, AFP reported.

On Monday, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) lost 10 soldiers on its deadliest day in months within what has been a violent week.  In earlier violence on Wednesday, four American Nato soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down in neighbouring Helmand province.  The Taliban claimed its fighters had shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade in Sangin district.  More than 20 Nato soldiers have died this week.

Kandahar is set to be the next focus of Nato’s military drive against the Taliban.

For more information, please see:

CNN World News – 39 dead in blast at Afghanistan wedding – 9 June 2010

Al Jazeera English – Dozens killed in Afghan wedding – 9 June 2010

BBC News – Afghanistan explosion ‘kills dozens’ in Kandahar – 9 June 2010

Image courtesy of the Washington Post