Afghan suicide bomber targeting clerics kills 43

Bloomberg

A suicide bomber targeting a gathering of hundreds of religious scholars in Afghan capital Kabul killed 43 clerics and wounded more than 80 others, Afghan officials said. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bomber detonated explosives as the clerics were commemorating the birthday of Prophet Mohammad in a wedding hall, said Kabul police spokesman Basir Mujahed.
The dead toll may rise as the conditions of some wounded are severe, said Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health spokesman Wahid Majroh. The deadly incident takes place as the US is pushing to broker a peace deal with Taliban, which controls or contests half of Afghanistan, before the presidential elections on April 2019 in a bid to end its longest 17 years of war.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, condemning the attack, said the “criminal and anti-Islamic act clearly shows enmity against the values of Islam and humanity.”