Bomb Blast Kills 11 At U.S. Consulate

A car bomb killed at least 11 Pakistanis outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on Friday. U.S. diplomats in Pakistan said no foreigners or staff of the Consulate were killed in the explosion, although one American and five Pakistani employees received minor injuries when struck by flying debris.

Twenty other people outside the consulate were wounded by the blast, which left a crater several feet deep, destroyed a guard post and damaged a concrete wall surrounding the building.

Early U.S. suspicion centered on al Qaeda and affiliated Pakistani Islamic extremist groups, but officials said they had no direct evidence of who was responsible. Several Pakistani groups have ties to al Qaeda, but could have conducted the attack without the sanction of Osama bin Laden's organization.

President Bush said "radical killers" were behind Friday's attack and he vowed they would not intimidate the United States.

"We fight an enemy that are radical killers. That's what they are. They claim they're religious people and they blow up Muslims. They have no regard for individual life," Mr. Bush told reporters as he toured a summer reading camp in Houston.

"These people, if they think they are going to intimidate the United States, they don't understand the United States of America," he said, adding that that he felt for the victims and their families.

The attack followed visits to South Asia by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

CBS Radio News reports the Friday morning bomb hit right near the money exchange center at the consulate.

The massive blast incinerated a dozen cars, including two police vehicles, and sent debris flying a half-mile. It occurred around 11:15 a.m. in the sprawling southern port city.

Police said the bomb was concealed in a white car that the driver crashed into a police kiosk at the southern end of the consulate compound, destroying part of the heavy concrete wall. It also damaged the nearby Marriott Hotel and shattered windows in buildings a block away.

Witnesses reported seeing body parts scattered about the scene, including in Bagh Jinnah Park, a large public park across from the consulate.

Rescue teams rushed to the scene, and ambulances were shuttling the injured to nearby hospitals. Police sealed off streets in the normally quiet area.

Violence against foreigners by Islamic militants has increased since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and murdered in Karachi in January while working on a story about Islamic militants.

Suicide attacks - once unheard of in Pakistan - have occurred two other times so far this year. Both are believed to have been carried out by al Qaeda.

On March 17, a suicide grenade attack at a church in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave killed five people, including two Americans.

Last month, 11 French engineers and three others were killed in a suicide attack in front of a Karachi hotel less than a mile from Friday's blast.

A State Department official said the bombing led to the early closing Friday of the American Center in Islamabad and consular offices in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

A decision will be made over the weekend on whether to reopen these offices on Monday. No information was available on the number of U.S. personnel assigned to the consular office in Karachi.

Also, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad sent messages to Americans in Pakistan informing them about the bombing and urged them to take safety precautions.

The consulate in Karachi was operating with 28 U.S. government employees at the time of the blast, including the Marine guards and some employees on temporary assignment, Cassel said.

Security at the consulate already had been very high, Cassel said, but officials will now once evaluate it again, and also see if staffing should be cut even more throughout the country, she said.

"In a situation like this, we are constantly reviewing our staffing levels," Cassel said.

Ordinary Americans are already strongly urged to leave the country, she said.

The Pakistani government is cooperating fully in the investigation, and has been providing extra security, Cassel said.

"They're doing whatever they can," she said.