FBI Probes Karachi Bombing

U.S. FBI agents fanned out Sunday over the site of a deadly car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate Sunday, seeking clues as investigators tried to reconstruct how the attack took place.

About 20 Americans — most, if not all, FBI agents flown in to help in the probe — extensively videotaped and photographed the scene of carnage where 12 people died and 44 were injured in a massive blast Friday.

The death toll rose to 12 Sunday after an injured constable who was guarding the consulate, Ubaid Ullah, died in the hospital, Dr. Seemi Jamali said.

Police said they were taking seriously a claim of responsibility from a previously unknown group that threatened further attacks. They denied reports that three people had been taken into protective custody as witnesses.

The explosion blew a gaping hole in the heavily guarded consulate's perimeter wall, shattered windows a block away and sent debris flying a half-mile. The widespread devastation made it difficult to piece together events leading up to the bombing, even the precise death toll and which vehicle contained the explosives.

Officials first said they thought a suicide bomber was responsible. But attention has shifted to a driver's training school car that was carrying an instructor and three female students. Police said the bomb may have been stashed in the vehicle by someone who knew it would pass by the consulate and who detonated the explosives by radio from nearby.

Police officials said Sunday they estimate the bomb was between 20-30 pounds though they don't know yet what explosives were used.

The United States closed its Consulates in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, as well as the American Center in Islamabad, with a decision to be made Sunday on whether to reopen Monday. The fourth attack against foreigners in Pakistan since January also prompted the U.S. government to consider scaling back diplomatic staff in a country on the front line of the war against al Qaeda.

One U.S. Marine guard and five Pakistani employees at the Karachi Consulate suffered slight injuries from flying debris. Tight security measures, including concrete barriers around a 10-foot-high concrete wall, probably prevented more casualties inside the heavily guarded compound.

U.S. officials in Washington said they suspect al Qaeda or affiliated Islamic extremist groups carried out the attack, but have no direct evidence. Several Pakistani groups in Karachi have ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Retired Pakistani Gen. Talat Masood, a security analyst, said al Qaeda involvement "cannot be ruled out."

"Surely, this is the price we are paying for our support to the international community in the war against terrorism," Masood told The Associated Press.

The previously unknown "al-Qanoon," or The Law, claimed responsibility for the attack, which it called the start of a holy war against the United States and its "puppet ally," the Pakistani government.

In Washington, U.S. counterterrorism officials said they were aware of the claim but had not determined if it was credible.

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