A suicide car bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 60 people and turning the hotel into an inferno, police said. As flames engulfed the hotel, which is popular with foreigners, police said there were still people trapped inside.| Latest reports say 80 dead, and that might not be all. |
Al-Qaeda-linked militants based in hideouts in the Afghan border have launched a bloody campaign of bomb attacks in retaliation for offensives by the security forces. The hotel has been bombed twice before but the Saturday evening blast was the most serious in the Pakistani capital since the country joined the U.S.-led campaign against militancy in late 2001. Fire began in at least two places in the building and spread to other parts of the 290-room hotel, located at the foot of the Margalla hills in the city centre.
Brought the ceiling down
The explosion brought down the ceiling in a banquet room where there were about 200 to 300 people at a meal to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The owner of the hotel said the vehicle carrying the bomb was stopped at the front barrier and was being checked by guards after a bomb-sniffing dog raised the alarm.
Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is close to the United States and had earlier vowed to maintain nuclear-armed Pakistan's commitment to the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, even though it is deeply unpopular. In his address to parliament, he said Pakistan must stop militants from using its territory for attacks on other countries.
Interior ministry official Rehman Malik told reporters the government had received word of a possible attack near the parliamentary offices. "We had intelligence reports two days ago that some incident might take place," Malik said.
Pakistan, the world's only Islamic nuclear power, has faced a wave of bombings and other attacks for more than a year. Tribal areas along the Afghan border are believed to be a new stronghold for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.