KABUL, July 14: A suicide bomber blew himself up on Saturday in a wedding hall in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 23 people including a prominent warlord-turned-politician and three security officials, Afghan authorities said, in an attack that dealt a setback to efforts to unify the nation’s ethnic factions.    

Ahmad Khan Samangani, an ethnic Uzbek who commanded forces fighting the Soviets in the 1980s and later became a member of parliament, was welcoming guests to his daughter’s wedding when the blast ripped through the building in Aybak, the capital of Samangan province.

Authorities said 23 people were killed and about 60, including government officials, were wounded in the attack.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing, saying it was “carried out by the enemies of Afghanistan”. He ordered a team from Kabul to fly to the northern province to investigate the bombing.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. But in announcing their spring offensive on May 2, the Taliban said they would continue to target those who backed the Karzai government and the US-led international military coalition.

Mr Karzai needs the minority groups — loosely known as the Northern Alliance — to back his efforts to reconcile with the Taliban. But minorities already worry that President Karzai, a Pashtun, will make too many concessions to their Taliban enemies to achieve a peace deal to end the war.

Whatever support for peace talks that Mr Karzai has won from minority groups is likely to erode if militants continue to pick off their leaders one by one.

Saturday’s was the most recent in a string of deadly attacks over the past month around the country. On June 22, heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked a lakeside hotel north of Kabul and killed 18 people during a 12-hour standoff with security forces.

Two days earlier, a suicide bomber killed 21 people, including three US soldiers, at a checkpoint in a crowded market in the eastern city of Khost.

The violence threatens to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Separately, Nato said two of its service members were killed on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan — one in a militant attack and the other as a result of a non-battle related injury.

No other details were provided. So far this year, 235 Nato service members have died in Afghanistan.—AP