KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani vowed to wipe out Daesh, after a deadly attack on a wedding party in Kabul killed more than 60 people. The suicide bombing also injured 200 others late on Saturday evening.
Ghani, whose government is facing intense criticism for failing to deter attacks by sympathizers of Daesh and the Taliban, also announced the postponement of 100th anniversary celebrations of the country’s independence from Britain that were due to take place.
“We will eliminate Daesh hideouts all around the country … the fight against Daesh will be intensified,” Ghani said during a brief state ceremony to mark independence, even though formal festivities were put on hold.
The government had allocated millions of dollars and set aside two years for planning the event. “We postponed celebrations to honor the victims, but we will take the revenge of our people,” he added.
Daesh claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack, which happened while guests and family members of the bride and groom were in segregated halls for men and women.
Most of the victims were Shiite and ethnic Hazaras. Daesh considers them to be heretics and has targeted them in recent years.
“I think many of us are merely alive by appearance and physically. Mentally, we are all dead. We have collapsed from the inside,” Zaman Shah, a 25-year-old survivor who lost three brothers in the attack, told Arab News.
The bomber blew himself up in the men’s hall. The groom was with the bride in the women’s section and survived, but both lost at least 25 family members.
Six children from one family perished. Other families lost loved ones too.
“I lost two of my brothers and four nephews, life has no meaning for me anymore,” Ahmad Fawad told reporters. “Postponing the independence anniversary will not cure our grief, this government is weak and useless and cannot protect people.”
Hasmat Hussien, another survivor, lost eight close members of his family and relatives in the attack. “We do not know why this calamity has befallen us. You cannot understand or comprehend our grief, misery and pain. We have not managed to sleep or eat for nearly two days now,” he said.
Amir Mohammad a 50-year-old man whose son died and had two others wounded in the attack, said: “Life has become meaningless for my family. These people who were targeted were poor, ordinary civilians, not government authorities or generals.”
The suicide bombing took place even as the US and the Taliban near a peace deal that could eventually lead to the complete withdrawal of foreign troops and end decades of conflict.
The Taliban, for its part, has pledged not to allow any group to use Afghanistan for attacks against any country.
“The US is making a peace deal with the Taliban, but we fear Daesh will be the next group that will expand its activities and there will be fighting for an uncertain future,” Kabul shopkeeper Rahim Dad said. “There will be peace with one group, but war with another. That means we won’t have peace, even if America and the Taliban make peace,” he added.
Ghani blamed the Taliban for the attack, saying it had given rise to extremist networks such as Daesh.
The Taliban, whose fighters have battled Daesh in some parts of the country, condemned the attack and showed sympathy with the victims.
US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has led the US side in peace talks with the Taliban since last year, tweeted Sunday that it was time to step up efforts to end fighting.
But the peace talks have faltered, mostly because the Taliban refuses to engage with Ghani’s government.
“We condemn Daesh (Daesh) and yesterday’s heinous attack on a Kabul wedding hall that killed scores of innocent Afghan families,” Khalilzad tweeted. “We must accelerate the #AfghanPeaceProcess including intra-Afghan negotiations. Success here will put Afghans in a much stronger position to defeat Daesh.”
There was tight security in major cities as thousands of Afghans poured onto the streets to mark the 100th independence anniversary.
But blasts in the eastern city of Jalalabad disrupted the day. Officials said at least 50 people were wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts in the city, parts of which have been a Daesh bastion.
Afghan president vows to crush Daesh after deadly Kabul wedding strike
Afghan president vows to crush Daesh after deadly Kabul wedding strike
- ‘We have collapsed from the inside,’ says attack survivor
US wildfires pose fresh threat despite winds easing
- The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph
LOS ANGELES: The largest of the raging wildfires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles this week was reported to have shifted direction on Saturday, triggering more evacuation orders and posing a new challenge to exhausted firefighters.
Six simultaneous blazes that have ripped across Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday have killed at least 11 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 structures. The toll is expected to mount when firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches.
The fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the infernos eased on Friday night. But the Palisades Fire on the city’s western edge was heading in a new direction, prompting another evacuation order as it edged toward the Brentwood neighborhood and the San Fernando Valley foothills, the Los Angeles Times reported.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Death toll rises to 11 with more fatalities expected.
• 10,000 structures burned as neighborhoods turn to ash.
• Thousands homeless, public health emergency declared.
• Insurers face billions in claims, Biden vows support.
“The Palisades fire has got a new significant flare-up on the eastern portion and continues to northeast,” LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local station KTLA, according to a report on the LA Times website.
The fire, the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, has razed whole neighborhoods to the ground, leaving just the smoldering ruins of what had been people’s homes and possessions.
Some 153,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 166,800 faced evacuation warnings with a curfew in place for all evacuation zones, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government and Canada have rushed aid to California, bolstering aerial teams dropping water and fire retardant on the flaming hills and crews on the ground attacking fire lines with hand tools and hoses.
The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph.
Officials have declared a public health emergency due to the thick, toxic smoke.
Pacific Palisades residents who ventured back to their devastated neighborhoods on Friday were shocked to find brick chimneys looming over charred waste and burnt-out vehicles as acrid smoke lingered in the air.
“This was a house that was loved,” Kelly Foster, 44, said while combing through the rubble where her house once stood.
Foster’s 16-year-old daughter, Ada, said she tried to get inside but “I just became sick. I just couldn’t even ... Yeah, it’s hard.”
In Rick McGeagh’s Palisades neighborhood, only six of 60 homes survived, and all that remained standing at his ranch house was a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“Everything else is ash and rubble,” said McGeagh, 61, a commercial real estate broker who, along with his wife, raised three children at their home.
On Friday morning, hundreds of people streamed into a parking lot near the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena for donated clothing, diapers and bottled water.
Denise Doss, 63, said she was anxious to return to her destroyed home in Altadena to see if anything was salvageable, but officials stopped her due to safety concerns.
“At least to say goodbye until we can rebuild. I will let God lead me,” Doss said.
Many Altadena residents said they were worried government resources would go to wealthier areas and that insurers might short-change those who cannot afford to contest denials of fire claims.
Beyond those who lost their homes, tens of thousands remained without power, and millions of people were exposed to poorer air quality, as the fires lofted traces of metals, plastics and other synthetic materials.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion, portending an arduous recovery and soaring homeowners’ insurance costs.
President Joe Biden has declared the fires a major disaster and said the US government would reimburse 100 percent of the recovery for the next six months.
Russia says US risks global energy instability with new sanctions
- “Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” said Moscow’s foreign ministry
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible“
MOSCOW: Moscow on Saturday accused the US of being ready to risk global energy instability with new wide-reaching sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.
The US and the UK on Friday announced new sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before President Joe Biden leaves office.
Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement that on the eve of Biden’s “inglorious time in power,” Washington was trying to “cause at least some harm to Russia’s economy even at the cost of destabilising world markets.”
“Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” it added.
In a reference to the California wildfires, Moscow accused Biden’s administration of leaving behind “scorched earth,” or total destruction, for incoming US President Donald Trump — since he cannot cancel the sanctions without Congress approval.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible.”
The US Treasury Department said Friday it was designating more than 180 ships as well as Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.”
Gazprom Neft on Friday slammed the sanctions as “baseless” and “illegitimate,” Russian state news agencies reported.
Biden’s deputy national security adviser for international economics, Daleep Singh, called the sanctions “the most significant” yet on Russia’s energy sector, which he said was “by far the largest source of revenue for (President Vladimir) Putin’s war.”
The Russian ministry on Saturday accused the US of seeking to “hinder as far as possible or even make impossible any bilateral economic ties, including with US business.”
It said Washington was “sacrificing to this the interests... of European allies,” which are “forced to switch over to more expensive and unreliable American supplies.”
It also accused Washington of “ignoring” the views of its own population on rising energy prices once the presidential election was over.
Two trams collide in France’s Strasbourg, 20 injured
- The trams collided near Strasbourg’s rail station.
- A large security perimeter has been set up in front of the station
STRASBOURG, France: Two trams collided in a tunnel in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, injuring at least twenty people, the authorities said.
Strasbourg was the first major French city to re-introduce its tram service, in 1994. Since then, there have been no major accidents.
“Twenty people” have been injured, said a spokesman for the prefecture, citing a preliminary estimate. He added that the cause of the accident had not yet been established.
The trams collided near Strasbourg’s rail station.
A large security perimeter has been set up in front of the station, where numerous ambulances have taken up position, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
A video posted by a witness on social media shows a chaotic scene with the two trams significantly damaged in the tunnel near the station.
One of the trams appears to have derailed as a result of the impact.
Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities
- Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France
LILLE: A 19-year-old Syrian migrant perished while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday, adding he was probably crushed to death in a leaking dinghy.
It was the first reported death at sea of a migrant seeking to travel to Britain from France so far this year.
Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France, on Friday night, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told AFP.
The prefecture said that “a few minutes later” the group disembarked from the leaking dinghy. On the floor of the boat, a Syrian man was found, the prefecture said, adding that he had suffered cardiac arrest.
He had “probably” been crushed to death.
“This was the first death at sea in 2025,” the prefecture said.
The victim, 19, was pronounced dead at 5:24 am, the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, said separately.
A forensic investigation will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.
Citing members of law enforcement, the prosecutor said the small boat carried around 60 migrants.
A 33-year-old Syrian-born man was arrested and placed in police custody, according to the prosecutor.
According to the prefecture, 77 people died trying to reach Britain in flimsy inflatable boats last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britain’s border control.
Associations providing help to migrants recorded 89 fatalities last year. The count includes migrants who died at sea and on the coast of northern France.
The groups planned a march in Calais on Saturday to denounce security policies they say are responsible for the mounting death toll.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, only 61 migrants arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats between 1 and 10 January, according to British authorities.
More than 36,800 people were detected crossing the Channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the interior ministry.
Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue in the UK’s July general election, which brought Labour to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
According to Downing Street, illegal migration was one of the issues discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.
Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports
- Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland
- The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report
COPENHAGEN: Denmark sent private messages to US President-elect Donald Trump’s team expressing willingness to discuss boosting security in Greenland or increasing the US military presence there without claiming the island, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two sources.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has described US control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, as an “absolute necessity.” He did not dismiss the potential use of military or economic means, including tariffs against Denmark.
Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week that she had asked for a meeting with Trump, but did not expect it to happen before his inauguration. Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede too said he was ready to speak with Trump but urged respect for the island’s independence aspirations.
Denmark has previously said that Greenland is not for sale.
