Pakistan yesterday blamed Taliban militants linked to al-Qaeda for the massive suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel that killed at least 53 people and injured more than 260.
Footage of Saturday night’s attack showed the carnage could have been far worse, but the attacker failed to get through a secondary barrier when he crashed his explosives-laden truck into the hotel’s security gates.
The Interior Ministry said the truck was packed with 600kg of explosives and pointed a finger at Taliban militants allied with al-Qaeda who are based in the remote areas along the border with Afghanistan.
PHOTO: AFP
Security officials said at least 60 people were killed. The ministry put the number confirmed dead at 53 and said 266 were injured.
Rescuers were continuing to pick through the rubble of the building, which was all but destroyed in the massive blast and a subsequent fire that swept through the 300-room hotel.
Czech ambassador Ivo Zdarek, who was living at the hotel, was among the dead.
The brazen attack appeared to have been timed to inflict maximum casualties, ripping through the hotel when it was packed with families having dinner to break the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Closed-circuit footage showed that the attacker rammed his truck into the gates but failed to get through a second barrier, which is raised after each vehicle enters the heavily secured complex.
The ministry said the attacker intended to drive right into the lobby of the hotel.
He apparently tried to convince the guards to lower the second barrier — and when they would not, he blew himself up in the truck’s cabin.
The guards then tried to put out the fire in the truck and it was several minutes before the second, larger blast devastated the Marriott.
Analysts say the ability to carry out such a massive bombing at one of the most secure sites in the capital, not far from parliament and the prime minister’s residence, was a sign of the militants’ reach.
The video footage showed the last moments before the truck blew up.
“The truck was stopped at the barrier and there was an altercation between the attacker and the guards,” said Rehman Malik, the top official in the Interior Ministry.
Sniffer dogs then detected something wrong and guards shouted at people to run.
The driver then tried to ram through the metal barrier.
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