The bombing came shortly after new President Asif Ali Zardari delivered his inaugural address to parliament only a few hundred metres away. -- PHOTO: AP
ISLAMABAD - RESCUERS pulled more bodies from the shell of the truck-bombed Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Sunday, pushing the death toll from one of the country's worst-ever terrorist strikes to 53, including the Czech ambassador.
The hotel, a favorite spot for foreigners and the Pakistani elite - and a previous target of militants - still smoldered from a fire that raged for hours after the previous day's explosion, which also wounded more than 250 people.
Huge Marriott bomb likely the work of Al-Qaeda: investigators
ISLAMABAD - THE attack on Islamabad's Marriott Hotel used over 500kg of high intensity explosives and was likely carried out by Al-Qaeda, investigators said on Sunday.
Nobody has claimed Saturday's suicide truck bombing of the five-star hotel in central Islamabad which left over 60 people dead, but investigators said it was typical of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Islamabad Marriott: a luxury oasis in a troubled city
PHOTO: REUTERS ISLAMABAD - THE Marriott Hotel was an oasis of calm for diplomats and politicians in Pakistan's capital, but its status as a symbol of Western capitalism made it a repeated target for Islamic militants.
The heavily-guarded hotel, just hundreds of metres from parliament and the presidency, was left a smoking ruin after a huge suicide truck bombing at the gates of the building on Saturday killed at least 60 people.
ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN television broadcast a video on Sunday of the Marriott Hotel bombing, showing that the attacker rammed the gates with his truck and then blew himself up minutes before the main blast.
Top interior ministry official Rehman Malik told a news conference that the driver apparently believed his huge truck, which had 600kg of explosives inside, would be able to crash through the security barriers.
The targeting of the American hotel chain came at a time of growing anger in the Muslim nation over a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases in Pakistan by US forces in Afghanistan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, though suspicion fell on Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taleban. The bombing bore the signs of an attack by Al-Qaeda or an affiliate, US and Pakistan intelligence officials said.
Analysts said the attack served as a warning from Islamic militants to Pakistan's new civilian leadership to stop cooperating with the US-led war on terror.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday.
But the temperatures remained high, and fires were still being put out in some parts. Officials said the main building could still collapse.
'The building's structure is dangerous,' said Malik Ashraf Awan, a senior civil defence officer. 'It consumed too much heat and shock.'
Khalid Hussain Abbasi, a rescue official, confirmed that six new bodies had been found, but would not say if any belonged to foreigners. He said he expected more charred remains to be discovered.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters on Sunday that the death toll had reached 'about 53'.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said Czech Ambassador Ivo Zdarek was among the dead.
At least one American also died in the attack, according to the US State Department. Officials in Pakistan said at least 21 foreigners were among the wounded, including Britons, Germans, Americans and several people from the Middle East.
TV footage showed at least two bodies partially visible from the wrecked facade Sunday morning. Outside, the hotel was surrounded by torched vehicles and debris.
The bomb went off close to 8pm on Saturday, when the restaurants inside would have been packed with Muslim diners breaking their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The blast left a vast crater some 10 metres deep in front of the main building, and investigators on Sunday combed the gaping hole for evidence.
The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to Parliament, just over a kilometre away from the hotel.
Witnesses and officials said the dump truck exploded about 18 metres away from the hotel at two heavy metal barriers blocking the entrance. The explosion reverberated throughout Islamabad and shattered windows hundreds of metres away.
Mr Malik told The Associated Press it was unclear who was behind the attack. But authorities had received intelligence there might be militant activity linked to Mr Zardari's address to Parliament and security had been tightened, he said.
The attack drew condemnations from around the world, including the United States, which has pressured Pakistan to do more to wipe out militant hide-outs on its side of the Afghan border.
Washington worries about Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters using Pakistan as a training, recruiting and regrouping ground to aid the insurgency in Afghanistan.
US President George W. Bush said the attack was 'a reminder of the ongoing threat faced by Pakistan, the United States, and all those who stand against violent extremism'.
A recent series of suspected US missile strikes and a rare American ground assault in Pakistan's north-west have signalled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out militants.
But the cross-border operations have drawn protests from the Pakistani government, which warned they would fan militancy.
Terrorism researcher Evan Kohlmann told the AP the attack was almost certainly the work of either Al-Qaeda or the Pakistani Taleban.
'It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as 'barracks' for Western diplomats and intel personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them,' Mr Kohlmann said.
The Marriott blast could prompt diplomats and aid groups in Islamabad, some of whom already operate under tight security, to re-evaluate whether non-essential staff and family members should stay.
UN officials met on Sunday to discuss the security situation and, for now, made no decision to change their measures, said Ms Amena Kamaal, a spokesman.
Mr Zardari, who on Sunday was headed to New York to lead a delegation to the United Nations and was expected to meet with Mr Bush during the week, spoke out against the cross-border strikes in his speech to Parliament. He condemned the 'cowardly attack' afterward in an address to the nation.
'Make this pain your strength,' he said. 'This is a menace, a cancer in Pakistan which we will eliminate. We will not be scared of these cowards.'
Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, joined the chorus of condemnation on Sunday, calling the attack 'heinous' and saying the army stands 'with the nation in its resolve to defeat the forces of extremism and terrorism'.
The army has staged offensives against insurgents in the nation's north-west that have drawn revenge attacks by Taleban militants.
The hotel stood in a plot surrounded by government buildings. In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.
The country's deadliest suicide bombing was on Oct 18, 2007, and targeted ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - Mr Zardari's wife - who survived. It killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations welcoming her home from exile.
Ms Bhutto was assassinated in a subsequent attack on Dec 27, 2007.
On Aug. 21, 2008, suicide bombers blew themselves up at two gates into a mammoth weapons factory in the town of Wah, killing at least 67 people and wounding more than 70. -- AP, REUTERS
