ISLAMABAD (Agencies)
Pakistan television broadcast a video 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 600 kilos of explosives inside, would be able to crash through the security barriers.
But the closed-circuit footage showed that it failed to get through a secondary barrier at the heavily guarded hotel.
The driver apparently could not convince the guards to let down that barrier and so then blew himself up. In shock, the guards are seen hesitating for a few moments before racing to put out the fire from that explosion.
The main explosion happened a few minutes later. There is no footage of that because the blast destroyed the camera, Malik said.
Pakistan's interior ministry Sunday blamed al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants from areas near the border with Afghanistan for the massive suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
Rescue teams Sunday entered the burning ruins of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel looking for bodies and survivors of a truck bombing which killed at least 60 people, including the Czech ambassador to Pakistan.
Fears more dead would be found inside the gutted 300-room hotel continued to rise as access to the six-story hotel was limited with rescuers only able to enter parts of the lobby and restaurants on the ground floor.
The Czech embassy's number two Jarolav Kalfirt said in Islamabad that Zdarek called his embassy moments after Saturday night's bombing from inside the hotel asking to be rescued, but he had not been heard from since.
A Danish diplomat was also missing Sunday, according to a foreign ministry official, though he could not confirm Pakistani TV reports that a Danish diplomat was killed.
"The embassy (in Islamabad) is organising some teams who are
investigating around the city, in hospitals and other places, trying
to find out what has happened to him," Klavs Holm, ambassador for
public diplomacy at the Danish foreign ministry, told AFP.
The bombing happened in the wake of a series of U.S. missile strikes against militant targets in the Pakistani tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.
The militants believe the government and army have helped the U.S., despite Pakistani protests.
Analysts speculate that the hotel was targeted because the U.S. franchise Marriott hotel is in a high-security zone close to the presidency building, the prime minister's residence and the parliament. Hitting the Marriott demonstrated the militants' ability to penetrate the security ring.
The hotel's clientele are members of the Pakistani elite, foreign diplomats, businessmen and journalists.
The attack appeared to be timed to cause the maximum number of casualties, coming as the hotel was thronged with families holding their evening meal to break the daily Ramadan fast.
The Marriott was attacked previously in 2004 and in 2007, when a security guard foiled a suicide attack. |
