World

Pakistan Probes Rocket Attacks

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 12, 1999 / 4:24 AM EST / CBS

Searching for leads in the attack on the American embassy and United Nations mission in the Pakistani capital, explosives experts Saturday described the fired weapons as crude, homemade rocket launchers.

At least six people were wounded during at least as many explosions Friday, police said. No Americans were hurt, although the U.S. and U.N. buildings were almost certainly the intended targets.

On Friday, Pakistani officials said they suspected the attack was masterminded by Osama bin Ladin, who already has a $5 million price tag on his head for the bombings of American embassies in Africa. However, no one has taken responsibility for the attack.

The rockets fell short of their targets and caused no major damage, but two charred vehicles found near the embassy and the American center contained rocket launchers and explosives. The attackers apparently destroyed the cars before fleeing.

Security has been tightened at the American cultural center in Islamabad with rolls of barbed wire encircling the building and police with automatic rifles patrolling outside. Pakistan has set up a special investigation group led by the head of the secret service, Gen. Mahmood Hassan.

A militant Islamic group said Saturday that no religious group was behind the attacks. Hafiz Saeed, whose group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is considered one of Pakistan's more militant Islamic groups, blamed Friday's rocket assault in the Pakistani capital on neighboring India.

"Its an Indian plot to discredit Pakistan," said Saeed, whose organization is fighting Indian troops on its territory in Indian Kashmir.

Saeed said the attack was an attempt to drive a wedge between Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan's Taliban religious army.

The United States says it has not ruled out any suspects, including the Taliban religious army.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's reclusive leader, was quick to condemn the attacks in Pakistan. According to Pakistani intelligence sources, both Omar and bin Laden sent a message to Pakistan's army ruler, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, assuring him that they were not involved in the explosions.

In a letter, excerpts of which were published in the English-language daily newspaper The News Saturday, Omar said Afghanistan "requests the Pakistan government and the U.N. and the U.S. to spare no effort to unearth the culprits behind the attack."

But earlier this week, a Taliban leader publicly warned Americans, "You will be surprised about what is coming to you," if the sanctions are allowed to take effect.

On Saturday, Afghanistan's Taliban government issued a last-minute appeal to the U.N. to delay or scrap sanctions due to be slapped on the country on Sunday, and renewed an offer to talk with the United States.

But Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, who made the appeal in an interview with Reuters, reiterated that his government would not hand over Saudi-born terrorism suspect bin Laden aganst his will.

"We are ready to hold talks with the United States, but not on his (Osama bin Laden's) handover," Muttawakil said.

The plea came as hundreds of protesters marched through streets in cities across Afghanistan, shouting "Death to America" and burning U.S. flags, Taliban's Radio Shariat said.

The Taliban, who rule 90 percent of neighboring Afghanistan, are harboring bin Laden, wanted by the United States for alleged involvement in last year's U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa that left 224 dead.

The United States retaliated shortly afterward by bombing a suspected weapons factory in Sudan and targets in Afghanistan where bin Laden was suspected of running a terrorist training camp.

On Wednesday, thousands of demonstrators in southern Afghanistan attacked United Nations offices with stones and bricks, burning U.S. flags and effigies of President Clinton to protest the threatened sanctions.