June 02, 2008
Danish Embassy in Pakistan Car Bombed (Updated w/ Video)
Apparently making good on threats made in April by Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri after the republication of the infamous Danish Motoons, a large car bomb blasted the Danish embassy in Islamabad, killing at least 5 people. Via AP:
The blast echoed through Islamabad and left a crater more than three feet deep in the road in front of the embassy. Shattered glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. A plume of smoke rose above the scene as people, some bloodied, ran back and forth in a state of panic.The explosion appeared to be a car bomb, police officer Muhammad Ashraf said. Someone parked a car in front of the embassy and it exploded at around 1 p.m, he said.
Officials at two hospitals reported at least five people — including two policemen — were killed and 35 wounded in the blast.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the explosion killed a male Pakistani custodian at the embassy and seriously injured a handyman. Two office workers were also injured, Moeller said.
He condemned the attack as "totally unacceptable."
"It is terrible that terrorists do this. The embassy is there to have a cooperation between the Pakistani population and Denmark, and that means they are destroying that," Moeller told Denmark's TV2 News channel.
UPDATE II: US condemns attack on Danish Embassy
UPDATE III: Video below fold.
