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Afghan bride, groom among 13 dead in wedding bus blast

* Kidnapped French nationals freed in Afghanistan

KABUL: A suspected militant bomb struck a minibus carrying a newly married couple in Afghanistan killing the bride and groom and 11 wedding guests, police said on Saturday.

The device that blew up the wedding party in the southern province of Kandahar was likely planted to target security forces, provincial police chief Mutiullah Khan said. He said 10 people were killed in the blast near the town of Spin Boldak close to the Pakistan border.

“A roadside bomb exploded under a minibus carrying a bride and groom. Ten people including the bride and the groom were martyred,” he said.

But Spin Boldak border police commander Abdul Raziq said that 13 had died - eight woman, two children and three men.

Six other people were wounded in the attack on the wedding convoy, both officials said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told a South Asian summit in Sri Lanka on Saturday that terrorism was spreading “like wild fire” in the region, particularly in Pakistan.

“In Pakistan, terrorism and its sanctuaries are gaining a deeper grip as demonstrated by the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” Karzai said, referring to the Pakistani opposition leader killed in December.

Afghan and Western officials say much of the unrest is being plotted across the border in Pakistan, which is under pressure to do more again extremists who set up there after the fall of the Taliban regime

French workers: Two French aid workers kidnapped last month in central Afghanistan have been freed after more than two weeks in captivity, the employers and the Afghan government said on Saturday.

The governor of the province of Day Kundi, where the two Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim) workers were taken from their home on July 18, said four men had been detained in connection with the kidnapping.

“Action Against Hunger was relieved to learn this morning the liberation of its two expatriates who were kidnapped 15 days ago in Afghanistan,” the aid group said in a statement.

“Our colleagues are apparently healthy,” it said, adding, “Everything is being done to organise their trip back to France as soon as possible.”

The men were in good health and doing well, Action Against Hunger spokeswoman Elise Rodriguez told reporters in Paris.

Their office in Afghanistan was organising their return to Kabul in liaison with the Afghan and French authorities after which they would return to France, she said. Rodriguez would not give details of how they were freed. afp

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