Bangladesh News

At least 40 people were killed in a massive car bombing at the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistan capital Islamabad on Saturday in what appears to have been a suicide attack.

Many people were still trapped inside the burning building last night as rescue efforts continued, police said.

Flames were seen shooting out of the hotel, a key meeting place for foreigners and one of the most carefully guarded sites in the city, after the powerful blast, which was heard from quite far away.

Police officials said it appeared to be a car bombing but could not confirm it had been a suicide attack. Ambulances were racing to the scene, and it was not immediately known how many people were wounded.

Pakistani police warned Saturday the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad could collapse following the attack.

“So far 40 bodies have been taken out from the blast site,” city police chief Asghar Raza told AFP.

Another police official said more than 100 people were wounded, many were in critical condition.

Police the deadly bombing outside the five star hotel appeared to be a suicide attack.

“It looks like a suicide attack,” senior police officer Saqib Sultan told AFP.

The attack came just hours after new President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces a tough challenge in reining in a wave of Islamist militant violence, delivered his first address to parliament.

In his first speech to MPs since he replaced Pervez Musharraf in August, he vowed instead to “root out terrorism and extremism wherever and whenever they may rear their ugly heads”.

Zardari called for an end to the president’s powers to dissolve the assembly and dismiss the government.

He was speaking in Islamabad, just several hundred metres to the east of the Marriott.

The United States was looking into whether any US nationals were hurt, a State Department spokeswoman said Saturday.

Pakistan has been a key ally of the US in its “war on terror”, but relations have become strained over tactics.

“The attacker came in a big vehicle and rammed it into the outer gate of the Marriott Hotel,” an eyewitness said.

The bomb was so powerful that it blew out windows in buildings about one kilometre (a half-mile) away. An AFP photographer saw at least 20 mutilated bodies amid the carnage at the scene.

Witnesses spoke of a smaller blast followed by a much larger one.

A US State Department official using a section of white pipe as a walking stick led three colleagues through the rubble from the charred building, one of them bleeding heavily from a wound on the side of his head.

One of the four, who identified himself only as Tony, said they had begun moving toward the rear of the Chinese restaurant after the first blast when the second one threw them against the back wall.

“Then we saw a big truck coming through the gates,” he said. “After that it was just smoke and darkness.”

Ambulances rushed to the area, picking their way through the charred carcasses of vehicles that had been in the street outside. Windows in buildings hundreds of yards away were shattered.

In recent months, Pakistan has voiced growing disquiet over US raids targeting militants in its territory, launched from neighbouring Afghanistan.

A BBC report said that the centre of the blast was at the front of the building close to the area where security checks are carried out.

About two-thirds of the 290-room hotel went on fire following the blast, and the wounded and dead are still being brought out, on stretchers or wrapped in sheets hours after the attack.

Emergency services had been unable to reach the upper floors of the hotel, where more people were feared to be trapped, the BBC report added.

A hotel employee, Mohammad Sultan, said he was in the reception when something exploded, forcing him to the ground.

“I don’t understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished,” he told the Associated Press news agency.

There are reports that the explosion brought down the ceiling of the banquet hall, where some 300 people were sharing a meal to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The Marriott is the most prestigious hotel in the capital, and is located near government buildings and diplomatic missions.

Security there is tight, with guests and vehicles subject to checks.

It is popular with foreigners visiting Pakistan or members of the expat community, and has previously been the target of militants.

Pakistan 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.

Zardari was to meet US President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the annual debate of world leaders at the United Nations in New York next week. It was not immediately known if that trip would go ahead.

The Bush administration has accused Taliban Islamic militants and Al-Qaeda followers of using the unruly border areas as bases from which to direct a growing deadly insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Strains have emerged between Islamabad and Washington over strikes by US forces on the Pakistani tribal areas.

Strikes against Pakistani territory, the tally of civilian casualties as well as reports that the US forces even conducted a ground raid into Pakistan on September 3 have fueled anti-American feeling in the country.

Islamabad has already protested the strikes and Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani has pledged to safeguard the country’s “territorial integrity.”

Source : AFP, AP, BBC Online