Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network might be behind the failed assassination attempt against Pakistan's prime minister-designate, a senior Cabinet minister said yesterday, though investigators are still pouring over the evidence.
The death toll from the suicide bomb attack Friday against Shaukat Aziz, meanwhile, rose to eight, with about three dozen injured, said Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
PHOTO: EPA
Among those killed was Aziz's driver, who had not yet closed the bullet-proof door on the car when a man approached and detonated a bomb.
"Al-Qaeda may be behind it," Ahmed told The Associated Press, before adding that there is no hard evidence linking the group.
President General Pervez Musharraf has said he believes al-Qaeda was involved in two attempts to kill him in December, the last of which killed 17 people. He was unharmed.
The attack on Aziz, the finance minister already tapped to become the nation's next prime minister, occurred Friday as the 60-year-old politician left a rally in Fateh Jang, a town 55km southwest of the capital.
It came hours after Pakistan announced the capture of a senior al-Qaeda terrorist, and a day after Pakistan acknowledged it was considering sending troops to Iraq.
Islamic militants are enraged at President General Pervez Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terror. Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri called for his assassination in a tape released earlier this year, and several homegrown militant groups have also been implicated in plots to kill him.
Pakistani intelligence officials swooped down Sunday on Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani -- a Tanzanian with a US$25 million bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 East African embassy attacks. The government said the arrest was "a major blow" to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, and vowed to keep hunting terrorists.
The assassination attempt on Aziz occurred after he and Fateh Jang mayor Tahir Sadiq had just gotten into the bulletproof Mercedes, parked in a crowded area. A man witnesses say was in his early 20s approached the car and set off the blast.
"The moment I sat in the car with Aziz there was an explosion," Sadiq said. "He is safe and God Almighty is the greatest protector."
An AP photographer at the scene shortly after the attack say it left body parts, blood and glass strewn over a wide area.
Two hours after the attack, Aziz -- appearing unhurt -- told a gathering of supporters outside his Islamabad home late Friday that he was all right and would "continue to serve the country with the same commitment and determination."
About a dozen heavily armed Pakistani soldiers arrived shortly afterward to guard the residence.
Ahmed late Friday said the attack was a "conspiracy against our democracy but the election process will continue."
Musharraf also condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of lives. "These cowardly acts will not deter us from our fight against terror," he said.
Aziz, a former Citibank executive credited with turning around Pakistan's economy under Musharraf, was in Fateh Jang to campaign for an upcoming by-election in which he needs to win a seat in the lower house.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS