Pakistan truck bomb kills at least 40
In Islamabad, an explosives-laden vehicle rams the gates of the heavily guarded Marriott, where diners were breaking the Ramadan fast. Fire continues to rage, and the toll is expected to rise.
Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - At least 40 people were killed Saturday evening in a massive truck bombing that struck a five-star hotel popular with Pakistani leaders and foreign diplomats in the heart of this violence-racked capital.
Dozens more people were trapped inside the Marriott Hotel as firefighters battle a blaze that still raged hours after the blast. Authorities said that the death toll could continue to rise.
The thunderous explosion about 8 p.m. could be heard for miles around. The force of the blast carved a 30-foot-deep crater in front of the hotel, which has been hit by terrorist attacks before.
This time, the attackers struck at an hour when the building was sure to be filled with people: after sunset, as hotel guests and other visitors sat down to break the daily fast observed during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Among the scores of people injured appeared to be a number of foreigners, including Americans, although there was no independent verification of that fact.
Only hours before the attack, Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, delivered his maiden address to the Pakistani parliament. He and other top government leaders were having dinner at the prime minister's residence near the Marriott when the explosives-laden truck rammed the gate of the hotel.
Rehman Malik, the head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told the Associated Press that authorities had received intelligence that there might be militant activity due to Zardari's inaugural address. Security had been tightened, he said.
Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, Pakistani officials have warned that militancy could heat up following a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which had angered public opinion.
IntelCenter, a group which monitors Al Qaeda communications, said senior Al Qaeda leader Mustafa Abu Yazid, who claimed responsibility for the June Danish Embassy bombing in Islamabad, had threatened additional attacks against Western interests in Pakistan in a video timed to the recent anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This is terrorism and we have to fight it together as a nation," Malik told reporters at a hospital overflowing with the wounded.
The United States strongly condemned the attack.
