US diplomat dies in suicide attack
The blast propelled cars into the air and flung wreckage as far as 200 yards. It shattered windows at the US consulate and on all 10 floors of a nearby hotel.
Mr Bush condemned the attack and said “terrorists and killers” would not prevent him from going to Pakistan on the final leg of his tour of south Asia.
Karachi police chief Niaz Sadiqui said the attacker intended to hit the consulate, but a Pakistani paramilitary guard tried to stop him, so the attacker rammed his car into the diplomat’s vehicle instead. The guard also died in the blast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous attacks on Westerners in Karachi have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups.
The explosion, which ripped out a crater 8 feet wide and 2 feet deep, tore through car park of the Marriott hotel, which is 20 yards from the consulate. A man’s body was flung onto the hotel’s second storey.
The diplomat’s car was blown into the air, across a concrete barrier and onto the grounds of the hotel.
A counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the attacker used high-intensity explosives, and the attack was the most powerful blast he had seen in Karachi - a hotbed of Islamic militancy.
Police initially said two car bombs went off, but provincial police chief Jahangir Mirza said a single bomb may have triggered a smaller explosion in a burning car.
Some 52 people were injured, including a young girl hit by flying debris.
Officials said the bombing could be timed for Mr Bush’s visit to Pakistan.
He is set to fly today to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, 1,000 miles north of Karachi, but his exact arrival time is being kept secret.
