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21 Killed at Afghan Wedding


Kabul, Afghanistan
Kabul, Afghanistan

A shootout at a wedding late Sunday in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan province left 21 people dead and several wounded.

"The clash broke out after a relative of a provincial police official was assassinated during the wedding party," Colonel Gulistan Qasani, the police chief of Dih Salah, told the Associated Press.

The police chief said hostilities between the two groups involved in the gunfight had been simmering for many years.

Qasani estimated 400 people had come to a private home for the wedding festivities.

Officials said most of the dead were wedding guests between the ages of 14 to 60.

Authorities said the bride and groom were safe.

Lavish weddings have become common since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, in contrast with the Taliban's time in power, when musical revelry and dancing were banned.

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