American Killed In Pakistan Bombing

Authorities say four people, including a U.S. diplomat, were killed and 52 others were injured when a suicide bomber rammed the diplomat's car outside the Karachi Marriott – yards away from the U.S. consulate. The blast early Thursday came just two days before the scheduled visit of President and Mrs. Bush, who are now in India.

The death of the American, a foreign service officer, was announced personally by President Bush Thursday at a news conference in New Delhi called to announce a nuclear power agreement with India.

"We have lost at least one U.S. citizen in the bombing, a foreign service officer, and I send our country's deepest condolences to that person's loved ones and family," said President Bush, speaking about two hours after the Karachi bombing.

The explosions in Karachi Thursday shattered windows in the consulate, the hotel and other nearby buildings, and shrouded the area in thick smoke as at least ten cars caught fire.

Police at first said there were two bombs, moments apart, but later said the destruction was the work of a single suicide bomber, with the second explosion that was reported likely being the fuel tank of a car in the parking lot blowing up as a result of the fire caused by the first bomb.

One man's body was found behind a burned car; another body, also a man, was found in the wreckage of another vehicle. A third man's body, with part of its head missing, was flung by one of the explosions onto the second story of the hotel's exterior. The fourth fatality, a woman, died of her injuries shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

One of the dead is identified as a Pakistani paramilitary officer on security duty.

Most of the injured – some of whom are reported to be seriously hurt – were in the hotel parking lot.

The blasts come as Pakistan braces for a Saturday visit from President Bush, whose impending arrival has not been welcomed by demonstrators who filled the streets of Karachi Tuesday, protesting the publication of Danish cartoons containing caricatures of Muhammad.

Some of the protesters denounced the planned Bush visit; others burned the American flag. One group held a banner blaming the U.S. president for both the publication of the caricatures and the Feb. 22nd attack in Iraq on the Shiite's golden dome shrine in Samarra.

Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush are now in India – where tens of thousands turned out Tuesday to protest that leg of his South Asian trip – and are scheduled to arrive Saturday in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Bushes will be arriving a day after what some Pakistani Islamic parties have declared to be a national day of protest of the publication of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The Bush administration – dating back to the early stages of the war in Afghanistan back in 2001 and continuing through today with the ongoing search for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden – considers Pakistan to be a strong ally in the war on terror.

The main focus of the Bush trip to Islamabad is to meet with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to discuss the fight against loyalists of both al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalists who were ousted from rule in Afghanistan and have numerous supporters within Pakistan.

Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan – where bin Laden once openly trained the recruits for al Qaeda – and its most remote mountainous regions have been periodically eyed as potential hideout spots for bin Laden.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's bombings.

Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is a hotbed for Islamic militants who have targeted the U.S. Consulate several times before.

In June 2002 a car bombing attack left 14 people dead, all Pakistanis outside the building, which lies in an upscale district of the sprawling city's downtown.

Thursday's explosions left the Karachi Marriott without electricity and it is shifting its guests to other hotels, said Faisal Ali, who works at the hotel's front desk.

A group of about 16 Western guests at the hotel gathered in a ground floor restaurant after the blasts and were making calls from their cell phones. None appeared injured.