THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A massive suicide truck bomb gutted the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital today, killing at least 40 people and wounding 250. Dozens more were feared dead inside the building that was still burning hours after the attack.
The targeting of the American hotel chain appeared to be one of the largest terrorist attacks ever in Pakistan and came at a time of growing anger in Pakistan over a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The bomb left a vast crater some 10 metres deep in front of the main building, where rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies. The fire was still burning at 2 a.m., six hours after the blast. It spread from the front to back, gutting most of the building and sending up a thick pall of smoke over the area.
Witnesses and officials said a large truck rammed two heavy metal barriers blocking the hotel entrance at about 8 p.m., when four restaurants inside would have been packed with diners at the hour that Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
The five-storey Marriott had been a favourite place for foreigners as well as Pakistani politicians and business people to stay and socialize in Islamabad despite repeated militant attacks on the hotel.
The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to parliament, just a kilometre away from the hotel, and days ahead of the new leader’s meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Rehman Malik, head of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, said authorities had received intelligence that there might be militant activity timed to coincide with Zardari’s inaugural address and security had been tightened.
After the attack, Zardari pledged to rid his country of the “cancer” of terrorism. In a brief statement broadcast on national television, he sent condolences to the victims and said he understood their pain because of the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
He appealed to Pakistan’s democratic forces to unite to defeat terrorism but did not indicate who might have been behind the attack. Pakistani officials, however, say Taliban and Al Qaeda militants based in the northwest of the country work closely together.
A U.S. State Department official 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 been moving toward the rear of a Chinese restaurant inside the hotel after a first, small blast when a second explosion hurled them against the back wall.
“Then we saw a big truck coming to the gates,” he said. “After that, it was just smoke and darkness.”
Mohammed Asghar, a worker from a nearby office with a makeshift bandage round his head, said there was more than one man in the truck and that they had argued with the hotel guards.
“Then there was a flash of light, the truck caught fire and then exploded with an enormous bang,” he said.
Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded. He fell down and everything temporarily went dark.
“I didn’t understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished,” he said.
Senior police official Asghar Raza Gardaizi said rescuers had counted at least 40 bodies at the scene and that he feared that there “dozens more dead inside.”
Associated Press reporters saw at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, were running out — some of them stained with blood.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman said 250 people were wounded. Two hospitals said 10 foreigners were among those in their treatment, including one each from Germany, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement there were no known Canadian casualties at this time but the Canadian High Commission was monitoring the situation closely.
He condemned the attack and extended sympathies to the families of the dead and injured.
The United States also condemned the attack.
“This is a reminder of the threat we all face, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House. “The United States will stand with Pakistan’s democratically elected government as they confront this challenge.”
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said officials were trying to account for embassy staff and any other Americans affected.
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 metres away were shattered. Tropical fish from the tanks inside lay among the torn furnishings in the entrance area.
“We live in a dangerous world and this is a terrible tragedy. We grieve for those people who died, or were injured, and their families,” Bill Marriott, chairman and CEO of Marriott International, said in a statement.
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