Embassy car bombing kills six
- 00:01:48
- ITN
Embassy car bombing kills six
At least six people have been killed and 20 injured in a suicide car bombing outside the Danish embassy in Pakistan's capital Islamabad.The force of the blast in an upmarket district of the city destroyed the embassy gate and badly damaged two nearby buildings, one of which belongs to a development agency, while a 1m crater (3ft) was blown open in the ground."Four people have been killed, there are no foreigners among them," a security official at the scene said, adding: "It seems it was a car bomb".Two of the dead were Pakistani policemen, sources said.Windows were broken in the home of the Indian High Commissioner, which is near the Danish embassy, a security official said.Danish newspapers infuriated Muslims around the world when they published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, sparked deadly protests in 2006 that included attacks on Danish missions.Local resident Sana Khalid said: "Since the printing of cartoons, we always had this fear. But what they did to our religion, they deserve it."The blast coincided with an anti-cartoon rally in the city of Multan attended by about 200 people. After hearing news of the blast, the protesters shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest)."Whoever commits blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad will face more serious consequences than this," said city cleric Intizar Hussain. "If it is a suicide attack, than whoever did it will go to heaven."Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller condemned the attack, saying: "It's terrible that terrorists commit such acts." He said he did not know if any Danes were hurt."We already were working under a higher security level in Pakistan... It's dangerous. There are fanatics and terrorists out there," he said.A wave of suicide bombings rocked Pakistan in the second half of 2007 and early this year but most of the attacks were on the Pakistani security forces and politicians, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, killed in a December 27 attack.The country's new government has opened talks with militants through intermediaries but they have raised questions in the US and among some of Pakistan's other allies, who fear peace deals in Pakistan will free up Taliban and al-Qaeda militants to intensify their war against Western troops in Afghanistan.
ITN | June 2, 2008
