Al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban suspected of carrying out attack that also wounded more than 250 people.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFpakistan marriot bomb 224.88(photo credit: AP)
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 terrorists - still smoldered from a fire that raged for hours after the previous day's explosion, which also wounded more than 250 people.
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 terrorist bases in Pakistan by US forces in Afghanistan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, though Analysts said the attack served as a warning from Islamic terrorists 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 defense 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 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 8 p.m. 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 30 feet 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, less than a mile away from the hotel.
Witnesses and officials said the dump truck exploded about 60 feet away from the hotel at two heavy metal barriers blocking the entrance. The explosion reverberated throughout Islamabad and shattered windows hundreds of yards away.
Malik told The Associated Press it was unclear who was behind the attack. But authorities had received intelligence there might be terrorist activity linked to 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 terrorist hide-outs on its side of the Afghan border. Washington worries about Taliban and al-Qaida 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 northwest have signaled Washington's impatience with Pakistan's efforts to clear out terrorists. 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-Qaida or the Pakistani Taliban.
"It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as 'barracks' for Western diplomats and intelligence personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them," 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 nonessential staff and family members should stay. UN officials met Sunday to discuss the security situation and, for now, made no decision to change their measures, said Amena Kamaal, a spokeswoman.
Zardari, who on Sunday was headed to New York to lead a delegation to the United Nations and was expected to meet with 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, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, joined the chorus of condemnation 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 northwest that have drawn revenge attacks by Taliban terrorists.
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 - Zardari's wife - who survived. It killed about 150 people in Karachi during celebrations welcoming her home from exile.
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.
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