Ahmad khan samangani biography of michael

KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up among guests at a wedding hall Saturday in northern Afghanistan, killing 23 people including a prominent ex-Uzbek warlord turned lawmaker who was the father of the bride. Three Afghan security force officials also were among those killed.

Ahmad Khan Samangani ( – 14 July ) was an Afghan member of parliament and a commander of the Junbish-i Milli.

Chairs adorned with pink fabric lay strewn across the site. Dead bodies were piled into the back of Afghan security force vehicles. Afghan Army helicopters ferried some of the wounded from the wedding hall, which has a facade of pillars painted a festive light green and pink. I could see people with missing legs and body parts all around me.

It was the latest in a string of deadly attacks around the country that threaten to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of In one of the worst, Taliban fighters attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul on June 22, killing 18 people. Two days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, including three U.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press in a phone call that the Taliban neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attack. In announcing their spring offensive on May 2, the Taliban said they would continue to target those who back the Karzai government and the U. While Pashtuns make up 42 per cent of the population, collectively the minority Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks and other smaller groups outnumber them.

He was the target of and killed in a suicide attack on 14 July Samangani was a known anti-Taliban commander and politician.

Many commanders from the minority groups fought the Taliban after they seized Kabul in and joined with the U. Whatever support for peace talks that Karzai has won from minority groups is likely to erode if militants continue to pick off their leaders one by one. The death of Samangani was the latest of a handful of Northern Alliance and other minority leaders assassinated in the past two years.

One of the most prominent was Gen.