ShutterstockA groom said he’ll ‘never see happiness in my life again’ – after witnessing 63 of his wedding guests, including his brother, massacred by ISIS in a suicide attack.
Mirwais Elmi was hosting a wedding reception in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, August 17, when a suicide bomber detonated a device. A second car bomb also exploded as ambulances alive, leaving 182 wounded among the dead.
Elmi isn’t featured in any of the pictures used in this article.
ShutterstockElmi’s bride survived, but he lost 14 members of his family in the attack – which ISIS have claimed to be responsible for.
Elmi told Afghanistan’s Tolo News, as per MailOnline:
My family, my bride are in shock, they cannot even speak. My bride keeps fainting.
I’ve lost hope. I lost my brother, I lost my friends, I lost my relatives. I will never see happiness in my life again.
I can’t go to the funerals, I feel very weak… I know that this won’t be the last suffering for Afghans, the suffering will continue.
ShutterstockKabul is largely populated by Shia Muslims, who are a frequent target of ISIS violence across Afghanistan and Iraq. Isis are Sunni – defined as ‘the larger of the two main branches of Islam, which differs from Shia in its understanding of the Sunna, its conception of religious leadership, and its acceptance of the first three caliphs’ – as are the Taliban, who condemned the attack.
Although Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan, said the Taliban bear some responsibility for the attack.
On Twitter, Ghani wrote: ‘Taliban cannot absolve themselves of blame, for they provide platform for terrorists.’
Ghani also tweeted:
I strongly condemn the inhumane attack on the wedding hall in Kabul last night. My top priority for now is to reach out to the families of victims of this barbaric attack. On behalf of the nation I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were martyred.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) August 18, 2019
This Isis attack comes after a bomb in a mosque in Pakistan on Friday, August 16, killed four people and left 20 injured – although, nobody has claimed responsibility.
ShutterstockAlso in Kabul last November, 40 people were killed in an explosion at a wedding. A Taliban suicide bomber killed 14 people and wounded 145 others in western Kabul in July.
Despite US negotiators and the Taliban reporting progress in peace talks – particularly with regards to an agreement centered on US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for a security guarantee – the Afghan government says the recent attacks raise questions about their commitment to achieving peace.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.