A bomb has ripped through a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving at least 20 people injured, a local hospital has said.
Yaahoo Journalist understands that the blast went off Saturday evening, August 17, in the men’s reception area at the Dubai City wedding hall in western Kabul.
Speaking on the development, ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said: “Unfortunately, the blast caused civilian casualties.”
Rahimi put the number of wounded persons in the tens and said details were being gathered.
The ministry spokesman, who said the blast occurred around 10:40 pm (18:10 GMT), shared on Facebook photos showing several bodies inside a dining area.
According to AlJazeera, witnesses said members of the minority Shia Muslim community were holding the wedding reception.
The report said Sunni Muslim armed groups including the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group have repeatedly attacked the Shia Hazara minorities in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan over the years.
Reacting to the attack, Sediq Seddiqi, spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said in a Twitter post: “Devastated by the news of a suicide attack inside a wedding hall in Kabul.”
“A heinous crime against our people; how is it possible to train a human and ask him to go and blow himself [up] inside a wedding?!!”
Meanwhile, Yaahoo Journalist understands that armed individuals and groups have periodically struck Afghan weddings, which are seen as “soft” targets with minimal security precautions.
As at the time of filing this report, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which went off Saturday evening.