Bomb kills 19 Afghan wedding partygoers

KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed at least 19 people, mostly women and children, who were on their way to a wedding in Afghanistan's north on Friday, local police officials said.

Fourteen more people were wounded in the blast in the Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province, said provincial police spokesman Shir Jan Durani, adding that the Taliban were behind the attack.

"They wanted to attend a wedding party in a village ... The bomb was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan," Durani said.

Separately, a bus carrying players for the country's first soccer league -- who are holding their final on Friday in the capital, Kabul -- crashed into a fuel tanker in northern Jowzjan province, killing nine and wounding 36, local officials said.

Violence has been increasing across the country as the deadline of end-2014 looms for most foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan, leaving the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces in control.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)