6 killed in blast at Danish Embassy in Pakistan

updated 10:03 a.m. ET June 2, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A huge car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy on Monday, killing at least six people just weeks after an al-Qaida leader urged attacks against Denmark for newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The blast echoed through the Pakistani capital, wounded dozens of people and left a crater more than three feet deep in the road outside the embassy's main gate. People, some bloodied, ran away in a state of panic.

Glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. A perimeter wall of the embassy collapsed and its metal gate was blown inward, but the embassy building itself remained standing, though its windows were shattered.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri recently called for attacks on Danish targets in response to the publication of caricatures in Danish newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Worst anti-Danish attack
The bombing was the worst anti-Danish attack since the cartoons first appeared in September 2005.

"Denmark will not alter its policy because of a terror attack," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen. "We will not give in to terrorists."

The car bombing follows attacks by al-Qaida against the U.S. Embassy in Yemen in March and another on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania in February, according to IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors al-Qaida messages.

Pakistani officials condemned Monday's blast and the new government indicated it did not want to stop talks to strike peace deals with militants in its regions bordering Afghanistan, a pursuit eyed warily by the U.S.

The government has insisted it is not talking to "terrorists" but rather militants willing to lay down their weapons.

"There is no question of any impact of this incident on the peace process, but of course it badly harmed our image in the world," said Rehman Malik, the Interior Ministry chief.

Officials said at least six people — including two policemen — were killed and 35 people were wounded in the blast. One of the victims of the bombing could have had Danish citizenship, Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said in a television interview. He did not elaborate.

A Brazilian woman working at the Danish Embassy was hurt but her injuries were not serious, Brazil's Foreign Ministry said.

It was the second targeting of foreigners in the usually tranquil Pakistani capital in less than three months.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the explosion killed a Pakistani cleaner and a handyman at the embassy and injured two office workers.

Moeller said in a television interview that one of the dead may have held a Danish passport. He did not elaborate.

Moeller said there was no way of immediately knowing the motive for the attack. He said the prophet cartoons were among several possible reasons.

Denmark faced threats at its embassies after a dozen newspapers in February reprinted a depiction of Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. That and other images in a Danish paper sparked riots in the Muslim world in 2006.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Moeller also said Taliban militants "who wanted to hit us because we are in Afghanistan" could be behind the blast. Denmark withdrew its troops from Iraq last year but has more than 600 soldiers in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

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