Pakistani police 'identify' assassin

Police have identified the body of a suicide bomber who died during a second attempt to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in 11 days.

The man was one of three three suicide bombers who attacked the president’s motorcade on Thursday and killed 15 people.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat declined to release the bomber’s name, citing security reasons but said evidence from the scene suggested at least one of the bombers was a foreigner.

Musharraf, 60, was unhurt in the attack that happened just a few hundred yards from the previous assassination bid in in Rawalpindi, a bustling city near the capital, Islamabad.

However, it marked a serious security lapse coming little more than a week before seven South Asian leaders were to hold a summit meeting in Islamabad.

The attackers tried to ram the president’s motorcade in two pick-up trucks, each loaded with 45 to 65 pounds of explosives.

They got close enough to crack the windshield on Musharraf’s limousine.

Investigators sifting through the carnage found what they believe is the skin from the face of one of the assailants, said the Information Minister.

“It appears that he is not a Pakistani,” Ahmed said, without being more specific. He said witnesses told police the attackers had small beards and long hair.

The president – a close ally in the US war on terrorism – blamed Islamic militants for both the recent assassination attempts and vowed to “cleanse the country of these extremists,” calling them enemies of Islam and Pakistan.

“I fought wars, I fought a lot of skirmishes also – I don’t run away,” he said.

Some officials have speculated that al-Qaida could have had a hand in the first assassination attempt – a sophisticated bomb planted in five places beneath a bridge. But no suspects have been identified.

High-tech devices in Musharraf’s limousine apparently delayed the explosion by jamming the bomb’s electronic trigger and no one was hurt.

Thursday’s attackers tried to leave nothing to chance, turning themselves into human bombs.

Islamic extremists have been angered by his support for the US-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan backed Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban regime before Musharraf switched sides following the September 11 terror attacks.

In an audiotape aired late September, a voice attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri - Osama bin Laden’s chief deputy – described Musharraf as a “traitor” for helping the United States topple the Taliban, and urged Muslims in Pakistan to ”uproot” him.

The latest bombing, however, came a day after Musharraf made a deal with hard-line Islamic political parties to step down as army chief by the end of next year.

The deal, in which Musharraf would stay on as president, ended a stalemate that had paralysed Parliament and stalled this nation’s return to democracy.