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| India-Pakistan | |||
| al-Qaeda blamed for Pak hotel carnage | |||
| 2008-09-22 | |||
Rescue teams hunted for survivors yesterday in the ruins of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, where a massive truck bomb killed at least 53 people in what officials said looked like the work of al-Qaeda.
Pakistan's interior ministry Sunday blamed al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants from tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan for the massive suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. Top ministry official Rehman Malik told a news conference that attackers involved in recent bombings were all from the tribal areas known here by their acronym FATA, and said the militant region was behind the latest carnage. Rescuers on Sunday retrieved the body of Czech Republic's envoy to Pakistan Ivo Zdarek from the wreckage of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, officials said. Ivo Zdarek called his embassy moments after Saturday night's bombing from inside the hotel asking to be rescued, but he has not been heard from since, the embassy's number two diplomat Jaroslav Kalfirt told AFP in Islamabad. Kalfirt said joint efforts with the Pakistani authorities to locate the ambassador had failed. A Danish diplomat is also missing after Saturday's devastating suicide bomb attack on the Marriott hotel, the Danish foreign ministry said Sunday. "We are concentrating right now on finding on finding the Dane who has been missing since yesterday," Klavs Holm, ambassador for public diplomacy at the Danish foreign ministry, told AFP.
The brazen attack appeared to have been timed to inflict maximum casualties, ripping through the hotel when it was packed with families having dinner to break the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "It has the hallmarks of al-Qaeda," a senior official involved in the investigation told AFP. "It was an al-Qaeda style bombing." The official said investigators believe up to 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) of explosives were packed into the truck, which exploded in a giant fireball at the security gate and tore an enormous crater in the ground. The blast ignited gas cylinders in the kitchen, setting off a blaze that swept through the 300-room hotel. A security official said some victims leapt to their deaths rather than be burnt alive on the upper floors. Pieces of human flesh were still scattered outside the hotel on Sunday morning. The intense heat inside kept rescuers, who were wearing masks and chemical protection suits, from getting inside most of the destroyed building. A senior security official said at least 53 people were dead. The government put the confirmed toll at 53 Sunday, and it was not known how many people might still be unaccounted for. Bodies pulled from the debris were burnt beyond recognition. The hotel was popular with politicians, foreigners and the Pakistani elite.
"We will not be deterred by these cowards, Pakistanis are brave and fearless people, they are not afraid of death," he said. "I promise you that such actions by these cowards will not lower our resolve," he said. But analysts say the ability to carry out such a massive bombing at one of the most secure sites in the capital, not far from parliament and the prime minister's residence, is an unmistakable sign of the militants' reach. Zardari's predecessor Pervez Musharraf turned Pakistan into a close ally of the United States after the September 11 attacks in 2001, and the government has waged a crackdown on militants in Pakistan's volatile northwest. That campaign has drawn the ire of many in Pakistan, the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation, and critics say elements of the army and intelligence services are supporting the militants. Many militants poured into the northwest tribal areas from across the border in Afghanistan when the United States invaded after 9/11, and much of the region is now effectively outside the Pakistani government's control. The administration of US President George W Bush says militants are using the area as a base of operations to lead the deadly insurgency in Afghanistan, and US forces have fired missiles and even raided the region. But even Zardari has warned that US operations on Pakistani soil are unacceptable. The perceived violation of sovereignty, and the Pakistan army's campaign against militants, have infuriated many Pakistanis. Exactly one year ago on September 20, Bin Laden called on Muslims in Pakistan "to carry out Jihad and fighting to remove (Musharraf), his government, his army and those who help him." | |||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 "I appeal to all democratic forces to come and save Pakistan." So let's send them our Democratic Party. |
| Posted by: Milton Fandango 2008-09-22 22:36 |
| #3 an article this am said the attack was aimed at Zardari, who had just given a speech against the terrorists that morning and was supposed to go to the hotel afterward for dinner.... |
| Posted by: Enver Whatle8684 2008-09-22 15:34 |
| #2 so how can the democratic forces come in to save Pakistan if they are getting shot at when they enter (see choppers and pak army fire) |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2008-09-22 13:40 |
| #1 "We will rid the country of this cancer," Zardari said in a message to the nation after the attack. "I appeal to all democratic forces to come and save Pakistan." Hmmm! Lets see, "democratic forces". In that area of the world that would be India for one and the USA (in Aghanistan) for the other. Does this mean that he has now agreed to us and the Indian's to come into Pakistan and eliminate this "cancer"? |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2008-09-22 10:26 |