The New York Times
KARACHI (Reuters) - The FBI joined Pakistani police Saturday hunting for possible al Qaeda links to a car bomb outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi that killed 11 people after a previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the blast.
Witnesses said FBI officials visited the site Saturday.
“They also took photographs and made a video of surrounding areas and the spot of the bomb attack,” one witness said.
A suicide bomber rammed a white Suzuki van, packed with explosives, into a concrete barrier in front of the U.S. consulate Friday, setting off a huge blast that also left dozens injured.
The attack, the fourth against foreigners in Pakistan since January, prompted the United States to temporarily close its missions in Pakistan. Staff at most diplomatic missions in Pakistan had already been scaled back due to military tensions with neighboring India.
President Bush said “radical killers” were behind the bombing and vowed they would not intimidate the United States.
A previously unknown group calling itself “Al-Qanoon” (The Law) said it carried out the blast in a message to media organizations in Pakistan. It said the bomb was the start of a “jihad” against America and Pakistan’s rulers.
Pakistani investigators said they were looking into the claim, but were also looking into other leads.
Police said the suicide bombing appeared similar to a May 8 attack on a hotel in Karachi that killed 11 French engineers and two Pakistanis.
Police said the bomber was apparently driving slowly past the consulate when he rammed into the barrier, setting off the explosives.
“PREPARE FOR MORE ATTACKS”
The blast left a crater several feet deep and several meters wide, destroyed a guard post and shattered windows at the consulate and major hotels in the area.
Police have closed all roads leading to the consulate, with hundreds of police and paramilitary rangers standing guard.
“We accept the responsibility for the bomb blast near the American consulate today,” said Al Qanoon’s handwritten Urdu-language statement sent to media offices in Karachi.
“America, its allies and its puppet Pakistani rulers should be prepared for more attacks. The bomb blast is the beginning of Al-Qanoon’s jihadi (militant) activities in Pakistan.”
Pakistani police sources said investigators were “hunting members of Islamic groups to gather further clues” as well as questioning militants already in police custody.
Police had not ruled out a possible link to al Qaeda, the group blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
“At this point in time when the investigation is at its very preliminary stage, we cannot pinpoint who is behind the terrorist attack,” a senior police official said, when asked if an al Qaeda link was under investigation.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf abandoned his former Taliban allies in Afghanistan -- protectors of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters -- and became a key U.S. ally after the September 11 attacks, a move that sparked violent reaction from Islamic radicals at home.
U.S. forces are helping Pakistani soldiers hunt for bands of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions along the Afghan border.