In one of the most brazen attacks against Americans in recent years, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a US Consulate vehicle in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including two US nationals. Earlier it was thought that two Americans had died in the attack, but the US denied such reports.
The two Americans wounded in the attack along with two Pakistani employees of the Consulate apparently escaped by whiskers as they were travelling in an armoured SUV.
The bomber slammed his car, laden with 110 kg of explosives into the Consulate vehicle, minutes after it had left the heavily guarded and fortified Consulate building and was passing a UNHCR guest house on Aabdara Road in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
So massive was the impact of the collusion of the bomb-laden car that it reverberated for miles around.
Eyewitnesses who included policemen accompanying the Consulate car as escorts said a thick plume of smoke rose over the sky and the blast left a crater five feet wide on the road.
‘The Americans were travelling in an armoured SUV and survived the attack,’ police officials said. An American backup vehicle immediately rushed the wounded Americans to the Consulate.
The police said the death toll could rise as many of the injured were in critical condition.
There were conflicting reports about whether there were any American casualties. Initially provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain had said two Americans were killed in the attack, but the US Embassy denied that any Americans were among the dead.
The two Americans wounded in the attack along with two Pakistani employees of the Consulate apparently escaped by whiskers as they were travelling in an armoured SUV.
The bomber slammed his car, laden with 110 kg of explosives into the Consulate vehicle, minutes after it had left the heavily guarded and fortified Consulate building and was passing a UNHCR guest house on Aabdara Road in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
So massive was the impact of the collusion of the bomb-laden car that it reverberated for miles around.
Eyewitnesses who included policemen accompanying the Consulate car as escorts said a thick plume of smoke rose over the sky and the blast left a crater five feet wide on the road.
‘The Americans were travelling in an armoured SUV and survived the attack,’ police officials said. An American backup vehicle immediately rushed the wounded Americans to the Consulate.
The police said the death toll could rise as many of the injured were in critical condition.
There were conflicting reports about whether there were any American casualties. Initially provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain had said two Americans were killed in the attack, but the US Embassy denied that any Americans were among the dead.