LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): Around 26 people were killed and another 45, mostly children and women, were wounded when several artillery and mortar shells hit a wedding party in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, officials said on Thursday.
Helmand police chief Pacha Gul Bakhtiar told Pajhwok Afghan News the marriage party came under a barrage of rockets fired from an unidentified location in Mian Rodhi locality late on Wednesday evening.   
The wounded have been admitted to the Emergency-run hospital in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, he said, but had no clear idea whether the rounds were fired by Afghan military or militants. He said the injured included 18 women and 24 children.
Shakir, the provincial council member, confirmed 40 persons wounded in the incident had been evacuated to the Emergency-run hospital and as many transferred to hospitals in Sangin and Musa Qala districts. He said more than 30 people had died.
Haji Nasim, a local elder, said rockets hit the wedding ceremony when security forces and Taliban exchanged fire.
Health officials said most of the wounded were children and women, with most of them in critical condition.
Gen. Mahmoud, the deputy commander of the 215 Maiwand Military Corps, said initial investigations suggested the rounds had been fired by Afghan forces, killing 20 persons and injuring another 41.
He, however, said investigations were still underway and those responsible would be given an exemplary punishment.
Omar Zwak, the governor’s spokesman, said a high-level delegation, led by the acting governor, had reached the area to ascertain facts. He confirmed 45 wounded had been taken to Lashkargah. He said the death toll might be higher than those injured.
Malook, the brother of the groom, said: “Women were celebrating the arrival of the bride when a mortar round landed in the middle of our home. I just learnt the bride had been injured.”
Moments later, Malook said, another mortar shell hit their house and then struck by three artillery shells. “I still don’t know how many members of our family have died and are injured,” he said, adding two Afghan military officials, Omar and Fateh Mohammad, had fired the shells.
Local residents said the number of dead and wounded was higher than 80. A resident, Khaliqdad, who accompanied the injured to hospital in Lashkargah, said the incident took place at 4pm on Friday.
 “After the incident, it was night when we found some vehicles to shift the injured to hospital and the number of injured seems to be more than 50.”
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, in an email said the rounds had been fired by Afghan army sol