KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A shootout at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan has left 21 people dead and eight wounded, an official said Monday. 
 
 An Afghan wounded teenager lies on a bed at a hospital in Puli Khumri, capital city of Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 27, 2015. A shootout at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Afghan wounded teenager lies on a bed at a hospital in Puli Khumri, capital city of Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 27, 2015. A shootout at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Afghan wounded teenager lies on a bed in a hospital in Puli Khumri, capital city of Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, July 27, 2015. A shootout at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan... (Associated Press) 
 
 Abdul Jabar Perdili, police chief of Baghlan province, said a gunfight broke out between two groups attending the wedding in Dih Salah district late Sunday. He said that most of the dead were wedding guests and at least two of the wounded were younger than 18 years old. 
 
 Perdili's spokesman, Jaweed Basharat, had earlier said that 10 people were wounded. Conflicting accounts are common in the chaotic aftermath of violent incidents. 
 
 Baghlan and other provinces of the north have been plagued by insurgent attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban. However, the war is often used as a cover for criminal activity and personal feuds. 
 
 The police chief of Dih Salah, Col. Gulistan Qasani, said hostility between the two groups involved in the gunfight had been simmering for many years. 
 
 "The clash broke out after a relative of a provincial police official was assassinated during the wedding party," Qasani said. 
 
 He said some 400 people had gathered at a private house for the wedding of a local mullah's son. 
 
 "When we collected the bodies it was difficult to determine who were the shooters and who were not, because I could not find any weapons," Qasani said. 
 
 Meanwhile in northern Sari Pul province, a local police commander and seven of his men surrendered to the Taliban in Kohistanat district, according to provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Asef Jabarkhail. 
 
 Jabarkhail said the surrender came after Taliban fighters attacked police checkpoints on Sunday. Reinforcements have reached the area to support police still fighting, he said. 
 
 The Taliban, who often exaggerate battlefield gains, said in a statement that 100 police in Sari Pul had defected to their side, a claim Jabarkhail denied. ||||| At least 20 people were killed when a gunfight broke out at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday, highlighting the fragile security situation in the war-torn country. 
 
 
 
 The clashes erupted late Sunday in Deh Salah district in Baghlan, a once-tranquil province that has recently been plagued by growing insecurity as the Taliban insurgency spreads north from its southern and eastern strongholds. 
 
 “As a result of the clashes, 20 people were killed and 10 others were wounded,” provincial police spokesman Jawed Basharat said. 
 
 District police chief Gulistan Qusani said the armed men traded verbal barbs before the gunfight broke out. 
 
 “A local security official fired in the air after the verbal exchange heated up ... and then both sides started trading fire,” Qusani said, giving a higher death toll of 21. 
 
 He added that the victims were all male guests at the wedding aged between 14 and 60. 
 
 Baghlan police spokesman Sultan Mohammad Ebadi said an official delegation had been sent to the area to investigate the matter. 
 
 Fatal gun fights and celebratory gunfire are woefully common at Afghan weddings, which have boomed in recent years in a country battered by nearly 40 years of war. 
 
 Afghan soldiers mistakenly fired mortars at a wedding party in late December in the southern province of Helmand, killing 17 women and children. 
 
 Some witnesses said the army attack was triggered when wedding guests shot celebratory gunfire into the air as the bride was brought to the groom’s house. 
 
 In July 2012, a suicide bomber killed a prominent Afghan lawmaker and 16 other people at his daughter’s wedding party in the north of the country. 
 
 And in June 2011, gunmen stormed a wedding party in eastern Afghanistan, killing the groom and eight other people in an attack blamed on Taliban-linked insurgents. 
 
 The Afghan government conducted its first face-to-face talks with Taliban cadres on 7 July in a Pakistani hill station, aimed at ending nearly 14 years of war. 
 
 Afghan officials said Friday they will meet insurgents this week for a second round of talks, pledging to press for a ceasefire in negotiations likely to be held in China. 
 
 But despite the willingness to engage in talks there has been no let-up in militant attacks, which are taking a heavy toll on civilians. 
 
 A suicide bomber on Wednesday killed 19 people including women and children in a crowded market in the northern province of Faryab, as insurgents intensify their annual summer offensive launched in late April. ||||| Story highlights Two groups got into a dispute in Baghlan province, an Interior Ministry spokesman says 
 
 He says the groups fired on each other, but bullets also killed guests not involved in the fight 
 
 Two teen boys are among the 21 killed, and eight other people were wounded 
 
 Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) A wedding in Afghanistan turned deadly Sunday night when a gunfight broke out, killing 21 people, an Afghan official said. 
 
 Two armed groups got into a dispute at the wedding in the northeastern province of Baghlan, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said. 
 
 The dueling groups fired on each other, Sediqqi said. But the bullets also killed guests who were not involved in the fight. 
 
 Two teenage boys were among the 21 killed, he said, and eight other people were wounded. 
 
 The cause of the dispute wasn't immediately clear. 
 
 Read More ||||| Taliban executes boy, 7, accused of spying as suicide bomber kills 40 children at wedding 
 
 
 
 By Mail Foreign Service 
 
 Last updated at 4:09 AM on 11th June 2010 
 
 Boy hanged in Helmand province after being put on trial by militants 
 
 More than 40 killed and 77 injured after bomb rips through wedding 
 
 Cameron pledges extra £67m for British troops on first visit to country 
 
 
 
 Taliban militants have executed a seven-year-old boy they accused of being a spy, it emerged today. 
 
 
 
 The child was abducted from his home and taken to a neighbouring village where he was put on trial. 
 
 His captors found him guilty of working for the government. 
 
 
 
 The child was then hanged in public in the village of Heratiyan, in the southern Sangin district of Helmand province. 
 
 
 
 Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai condemned the act as a 'crime against humanity' if proved and said officials were investigating. 
 
 
 
 Horror: Two of the young victims lie in hospital after a suicide bombing at an Afghanistan wedding left 40 dead 
 
 'I don't think there's a crime bigger than that that even the most inhuman forces on earth can commit,' he said. 
 
 
 
 'A seven-year-old boy cannot be a spy. A seven-year-old boy cannot be anything but a seven-year-old boy, and therefore hanging or shooting to kill a seven-year-old boy... is a crime against humanity.' 
 
 
 
 The execution came as 40 people - mainly children and teenagers - were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a wedding. 
 
 
 
 Another 77 were injured after the blast ripped through the party in Kandahar. 
 
 
 
 The bombing happened at around 9pm yesterday in a housing compound where men had gathered during the festivities. 
 
 
 
 Witnesses said the family that was attacked included a number of Afghan police officers. 
 
 
 
 The groom's brother and two of his cousins were in the police force, according to another cousin, Mohammad Alkozay. 
 
 
 
 The groom survived the attack, but was injured. His bride also survived. 
 
 Agha Mohammed, who survived the blast, said the guests were all seated and having a meal when the explosion happened, sending a huge fireball and smoke into the sky. 
 
 
 
 Female guests were at a different house that was not hit, one witness said. 
 
 
 
 Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied the group carried out the attack. 
 
 
 
 US military spokesman Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike, and said any suggestion otherwise was 'Taliban misinformation'. 
 
 
 
 Nato said in a statement that no service members from the alliance were involved in the incident. 
 
 
 
 The latest bombing happened in Nadahan village in the Argandab district of Kandahar province, considered the spiritual home of the Taliban, It is the focus of a forthcoming US military operation. 
 
 Survivors: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said most of the victims of the bombing had been children 
 
 The latest outbreak of violence came as David Cameron arrived in Afghanistan for his first visit to the country since taking office. 
 
 
 
 The Prime Minister was holding talks with President Hamid Karzai in the capital, Kabul. 
 
 
 
 Since assuming the premiership a month ago, Mr Cameron has been determined to stress that the country - where 10,000 British troops are engaged in fighting the Taliban - is his number one foreign policy priority. 
 
 
 
 Mr Cameron has already met Mr Karzai once, at his country residence, Chequers, as well as speaking to him by telephone. 
 
 
 
 He also despatched a high-level ministerial delegation - comprising Foreign Secretary William Hague, Defence Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell - to assess the situation for themselves. 
 
 Mr Cameron's visit was being seen in Whitehall as rounding off a period of assessment and taking stock. 
 
 
 
 Mourning: Men stand around coffins of blast victims outside a hospital in Kandahar city, Afghanistan 
 
 Speaking alongside Mr Karzai at his presidential palace, Mr Cameron announced an additional £67 million for the UK military force in Afghanistan to counter the threat from home-made bombs. 
 
 
 
 The number of British teams dealing with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) will be doubled, said the Prime Minister. 
 
 
 
 He also announced additional aid funding for Afghanistan to build up its army, police and civil service capacity in what he said was 'the vital year' to make progress in stabilising the country. 
 
 
 
 Describing relations between the two countries as 'very, very important', Mr Cameron said he regarded Afghanistan as Britain's most important foreign policy and national security issue. 
 
 
 
 Mr Cameron said: 'My biggest duty as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is to our armed forces, to make sure that they have all the equipment and all the protection they need to do the absolutely vital job that they are doing here in Afghanistan. 
 
 
 
 'I'm pleased to announce today that we will be spending an extra £67 million on countering the IED threat and actually doubling the number of British teams that are there to counter the threat from these explosive devices.' 
 
 Horror: The boy was hanged in Heratiyan, in Afghanistan's Helmand province
– What was supposed to be a joyous occasion turned into a bloodbath last night as two armed groups at an Afghan wedding got into a gunfight, killing 21 people—including two teen boys—and wounding at least eight others, an Afghan official says, per CNN. The shooters, most of whom were guests at the wedding in Baghlan province, were believed to be members of illegal local militias, not the Taliban or al-Qaeda, NBC News reports. Although CNN says the cause of the fight was "unclear," the police chief of the Dih Salah district of Baghlan tells the AP it appears the fight broke out after a relative of a provincial police officer was killed during the celebration for a local mullah's son, for which 400 or so people had gathered at a private house. Meanwhile, the police chief tells the Guardian that " a local security official fired in the air after the verbal exchange heated up … and then both sides started trading fire." The paper notes that "celebratory gunfire" and fatal shootouts are "woefully common" in the region. The paper cites a December wedding in which 17 women and children were killed after Afghan army soldiers heard such celebratory gunfire and blasted mortars at the wedding party by mistake. The AP notes that Baghlan and other northern Afghan provinces have been riddled with insurgent attacks since the 2001 US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban, but it adds that local feuds and other criminal activity still proliferate under the cover of war. (The Taliban attacked the Afghan Parliament just last month.)