menu

At Least 40 Killed in Huge Explosion at Pakistan Hotel – NYTimes.com

A suicide truck bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 40 people, wounding nearly 200 and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.

The explosion came hours after new President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, made his first address to parliament a few hundred meters away, calling for terrorism to be rooted out.

As flames engulfed the hotel, which is popular with foreigners including diplomats and also rich Pakistanis, police said there were still people trapped inside.