At least 63 dead and 182 wounded in ISIS suicide bombing at a wedding in Afghanistan

A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group has left at least 63 dead and 182 wounded Saturday night at a wedding party in Kabul, the worst attack in months in the Afghan capital, against a background of where the population is waiting for an agreement between the Taliban and the United States.

"The victims include women and children," said Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, who unveiled the terrible toll of the attack by "a suicide bomber who blew up his explosives." ".

"The participants danced and celebrated when the blast occurred," said a wounded guest in the arms and abdomen shortly before April 23.

"It was chaos, a mbadacre scene, a butchery"Said another 22-year-old injured, interviewed by AFP at the hospital." According to Hameed Quresh, who lost one of his brothers in the blast, there was more than 1,000 guests at the party.

Weddings in Afghanistan are gigantic events, with hundreds or even thousands of guests celebrating marriage together in industrial-sized halls, where men are usually separated from women and children.

The Taliban immediately denied any involvement of the group of insurgents in the attack. L & # 39; attack was claimed Sunday afternoon by the Afghan subsidiary of the IE. "Brother Kamikaze (…) has managed to reach a large number of apostates," writes the jihadist group in his Telegram account.

EI, Sunni radical Islamists, have repeatedly attacked the Shiite community of Afghanistan, which includes the families of the bride and groom.

The explosion comes at a time when the United States and the Taliban are ending an expected agreement to hear about a drastic reduction of US troops in Afghanistan in exchange for insurgents respecting a ceasefire, breaking ties with al Qaeda and negotiating a lasting peace agreement with the Kabul administration. Given the imminence of the pact, violence has increased in the country. The UN revealed that the month of July was the bloodiest since May 2017, with more than 1,500 civilians injured or killed in the country.

"The Taliban can not be exempt from any responsibility as they serve as a terrorist platform," said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who described the attack as "barbaric" on the eve of the centenary of the independence of the country. # 39; Afghanistan.

"They turned my happiness into shame, I lost my brother, my friends and my family. I will never be able to be happy again"said Mirwais, the man who was married Saturday, in statements to a local television channel.

"Yesterday afternoon, the guests came smiling at my wedding and in the afternoon, we released their bodies," he lamented.

At dawn, in the village hall, where the windows of broken windows and the roof poured by the force of the explosion, the ground was stained with blood, according to a photographer of the shop. AFP.

At the entrance, there were stacked shoes that people have forgotten in the middle of the panic. Funerals were held in the city's cemeteries, according to footage from local television, where several people appeared, burying 14 members of the same family.