Suicide attack kills 40 at Afghan wedding party

A suicide bomb ripped through a wedding party for a family with ties to police in the Taliban's heartland in Afghanistan, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens more, officials said Thursday.

The Taliban denied carrying out the attack, but strong suspicion fell on the insurgent group because it has previously attacked allies of the government or Afghan security forces.

The blast hit in an area that is largely considered a Taliban haven, and village residents said they believed they were attacked in an air bombardment. Mohammad Rassool, a cousin of the groom, said helicopters were circling above the compound before the explosion.

NATO said no service members from the alliance were involved or operating in the area at the time of the explosion. U.S. military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike.

New British Prime Minister David Cameron — making his first visit to Afghanistan since being elected last month — joined President Hamid Karzai in condemning the attack. The two talked in Kabul on Wednesday about the progress of the nearly 9-year-old war.

Cameron, whose nation is the second largest contributor of NATO forces in Afghanistan with some 10,000 troops, said 2010 was "the vital year" for showing that the U.S.-led counterinsurgency was working.

"This is the year when we have to make progress — progress for the sake of the Afghan people, but progress also on behalf of people back at home who want this to work," Cameron told a joint news conference with Karzai.

Cameron, whose coalition government is considered less invested in the war than its Labour predecessor, ruled out sending more British forces, saying, "The issue of more troops is not remotely on the U.K. agenda.'

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