US diplomat among seven injured in Pakistani Marriott hotel explosion AFP: 10/28/2004 http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32122 ISLAMABAD (AFP) - An American diplomat was among up to seven people wounded in a "powerful" explosion at the luxury Marriott hotel in Pakistan`s capital Islamabad, US officials, police and witnesses said. Hotel employees said the explosion occurred at around 9:35 pm (1635 GMT) at the entrance of the hotel, which is popular with foreign media and business people, and that they believed it was the result of a bomb. Pakistani authorities insisted though the most likely cause was an electrical short circuit and that there was no initial evidence that pointed to a terrorist attack. "It was evidently a case of short circuiting," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told reporters at the scene. "The forensic people have come and we are checking the whole place but there`s no evidence so far of any terrorist activity or any blast in that sense." A US State Department official in Washington said 11 staffers from the US embassy in Islamabad were having an evening meal at the Marriott when the explosion occurred. The official said one of the diplomats suffered minor injuries and the others were unhurt. Deputy superintendent of Islamabad police Khalid Masood told reporters at the scene that at least seven people were injured, "three of four" of whom were foreigners. Masood said a Pakistani employee of the hotel was in a critical condition with burns to 90 percent of his body. The explosion shattered the glass entrance of the Marriott, with the X-ray machine used to screen people as they entered almost completely destroyed. "It seems to be a bomb explosion. The bomb was apparently hidden in one of the flower pots near the entrance of the hotel," hotel employee Khurram Ahmed told AFP at the scene. "The blast was huge. It shook everyone in the hotel." When told hotel employees said they believed the blast was caused by a bomb, Information Minister Shaikh Rasheed told AFP: "That`s not true. It was an electrical short circuit." Hotel security guard Mohammad Salem told AFP he heard a powerful explosion. "Broken glasses flew around us. I felt a shock and fell down. There was blood on the floor around me. We don`t know what was the source of the blast but it was a very powerful blast." Hotel guests in their rooms well away from the entrance said they felt the explosion. "I was in my room and I thought there was some earthquake, I rushed out of the hotel," Pakistani guest Mohsin Ahmed said. "There was panic and people were trying to get out of the premises." The usually glittering lobby was also badly damaged with glass shards and broken chandeliers scattered on the ground. The Marriott is in a regular haunt for foreigners. "It`s the only place for entertainment," Rasheed, the information minister, said. It is located in the heavily guarded area close to official residences of federal ministers and provincial legislatures. A suicide car bomb at the Marriott hotel in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in August last year killed 11 Indonesians and a Dutch banker. 10/28/2004 - 18:57 GMT - AFP ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
