1 The Long War Journal: Five killed in suicide attack at UN office in Islamabad

Written by Bill Roggio on October 5, 2009 10:25 AM to 1 The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/10/five_killed_in_suici.php

A suicide bomber killed five United Nations workers in an attack at an office in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad.

The suicide bomber penetrated security at the World Food Program offices and detonated inside the building, killing four Pakistanis and an Iraqi national. Six Pakistanis were also wounded in the blast. Two employees are said to be in critical condition.

Pakistani police are attempting to determine how the bomber was able to get past the security measures in the capital. The UN compound is housed with other foreign offices and embassies in a high security district. Security checkpoints and blast walls ring the compounds.

"We are investigating how he managed to enter inside the building," Bani Amin, the deputy inspector general of police operations told AFP. "There are scanners, there are cameras, and strict security arrangements."

The blast in Islamabad is the first since June 6, when a suicide bomber killed two policemen in an attack on a police building.

The Taliban have penetrated the high security in Islamabad in previous attacks. Eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded in a suicide car bombing outside the Danish embassy in June 2008. In April 2009, a suicide bomber killed eight paramilitary policemen in an attack on a headquarters near a United Nations compound that houses the UN Human Rights Council.

The Taliban have promised they would initiate attacks in Pakistan if military operations in the tribal areas are not halted. Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, conducted a press conference yesterday with other Taliban leaders to dismiss reports of his death and Taliban infighting, and said the attacks would begin again. Over the past three years, the Taliban have conducted major suicide attacks and assaults in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar, as well as in numerous other towns and cities throughout the country.