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 ||||| 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. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. SUBSCRIBE 
 
 KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 21 people were shot dead at a wedding after an argument turned violent, a police chief in northern Afghanistan told NBC News on Monday. 
 
 The shooters were guests at the event and believed to be members of illegal local militias, rather than militant groups such as the Taliban or al Qaeda, provincial chief Gen. Abdul Jabar Purdeli said. 
 
 "They started firing indiscriminately" into the crowd after a dispute over local rivalries, Purdeli added. 
 
 Related: Are Afghans Ready for the Taliban's Return? 
 
 Most of the people killed at Sunday's event in the village of Charkara in northern Baghlan province were civilians, according to the police chief. The victims included two children. 
 
 Eight other people were wounded, Purdeli said.
– 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.)