Two Americans Among Five Killed at Pakistan Church

[boblandis]

By Simon Denyer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - An attacker lobbed grenades inside a Protestant church during a Sunday service in the diplomatic quarter of Islamabad, killing five people including a U.S. diplomat's wife and daughter.

There was no claim of responsibility but suspicion fell on hard-line Islamic groups opposed to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Forty-two people from various nations were wounded but the death toll could rise. Officials said six or seven people were gravely hurt.

"I saw a fellow throwing some grenades," said an elderly German woman wearing a white scarf flecked with blood who gave her name as Jutta. "I got down. Praise God I was spared but others were seriously injured. It was havoc."

The 60 to 70 people at the Protestant International Church, a popular place of worship for foreigners in Islamabad, had sung some hymns and were listening to the sermon.

The Sunday calm was shattered by a blast at the back of the church and one man rushed up the aisle brandishing grenades and shouting, witnesses said.

Worshippers dived for cover as five or six explosions ripped through the church, filling it with smoke and splattering the walls and ceiling with blood.

Security was immediately tightened in Islamabad and other parts of Pakistan, including the port city of Karachi where kidnapped U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered last month.

ATTACK CONDEMNED

Musharraf -- who has banned seven militant groups and ordered the detention of hundreds of activists since September 11 -- called the attack a "ghastly act of terrorism," according to the state news agency.

A government statement said a lone attacker killed the five churchgoers -- two Americans, one Pakistani, one Afghan and an unidentified person whose body was torn to pieces.

"Apparently it is of a foreigner and male," said a doctor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences.

The wife of diplomat Milton Green and his teenage daughter Kristen were killed, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan said. Green and his son were injured. Green's wife, Barbara, also worked at the U.S. embassy and his daughter was studying at the International School in the city.

Police said they were not yet sure whether the attacker had escaped or was among the dead or injured.

President Bush was "outraged by the terrorist act" and said it could not be justified by any cause.

"We will work closely with the government of Pakistan to ensure those responsible for this terrorist attack face justice," he said in a statement issued by the White House.

Wendy Chamberlin, the U.S. ambassador, called the American victims "two friends I admired, respected and I loved."

"I honor them for their lives, for the joy they brought to so many and for the credit and honor they brought to the United States," she told a news conference.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement he was "deeply shocked."

HEAVILY ARMED

Nick Parham, a Briton who works for the Tearfund aid agency, said he saw the attacker at close range after the first blast.

"One chap came down the aisle a couple of feet away from me. He had a belt on with a whole load of what looked like British army smoke grenades or home-made grenades," he told Reuters.

"He had one in his hand. At that point I hit the deck. There were five or six more explosions."

Parham was taken to hospital with six other people in an army truck. A young woman with severe internal wounds died shortly after arriving at hospital, he said.

Islamabad police chief Nasir Durrani said the wounded included 12 Pakistanis, 10 Americans, five Iranians, two Sri Lankans, one Iraqi, one Ethiopian and a German.

The government later said citizens of Britain, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Afghanistan had also been hurt.

Law Minister Khalid Ranjha said the attack was "certainly a message" and may have been carried out "to spoil our relations with our foreign friends."

But the head of Pakistan's main Islamic party said it could not have been the work of a religious group.

"We condemn this act in the strongest words and assure the Christian minority that we fully share their grief and tragedy and will support any action against people who did this," Jamaat-e-Islami leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said.

Sunday's attack follows the killing of 15 worshippers and a police guard at St. Dominic's church in the city of Bahawalpur in October, the worst assault on Pakistan's small Christian minority since independence from Britain in 1947.

Largely Muslim Pakistan has suffered a surge in violence between Sunni and Shi'ite militants but attacks on Christians and other minorities -- who make up about three percent of the 140 million population -- are relatively rare.

[Guest]

Its sad that innocents anywhere should be killed, but these extremist do not speak for the majority of the peacfull islamic population.  Islam is a peace loving religion.

[Freedom]

yes, more murder and mayham brought to you by the Islamic lovers of peace.

If it is a religion of peace , then why did Mohammed teach his followers to either convert or KILL us infidels?

Just because the news media has touted it as a religion of peace since 9/11 doesn't make it so.

[Guest]

The media doesnt know what the **** it is talking about it, read the koran, thats not what it says.  It says that the only reason to kill is do defend islam, not to spread it.  Get you facts right.

[boblandis]

Valentine,

  Your last post doesn't even merit a reply.

[Prime Number]

  The Quran as a whole is peaceful. You'll find that many Muslims reflect that peacefulness. You'll also find(in any religion) extremists who will take a few quotes from their religious book and do horrible things in the name of God. It's sad, and terrifying, and so unnecessary.

  There is something that I have learned from this. Terrorism(by extremists) is a symptom of a larger problem. Attempting to treat the symptom may get you short term results, but the problem will return eventually. Illiteracy, extreme poverty, and starvation seem to go hand in hand with terrorism. These things are not caused by religion, but by tyranny and oppression. If we go after the source instead of getting side tracked by our personal beliefs we will be better served. You don't give a starving, illiterate man the Bible and say "the answers are in here." You feed that man and teach him to read it for himself.

Prime#

[Teri Mc]

You guys seriously need to read the Koran. The Muslims that are peaceful rejected a large part of the Koran and don't abide by it, they are peaceful. My boss when I told him what was in there didn't believe it because he had never actually read it himself. Since I showed him he decided he's not Muslim. He still doesn't believe in Jesus as God, but theres still time. Two years I've been weedling my way into this guys heart. Now finally he denounced his faith. Praise the Lord. Still a long way to go but for me it's a gigantic step. Anyway got off track. The Koran does support what is going on in the Middle East. Not all the Muslims support their own texts. Thank God.

Love in Christ

Teri

[Prime Number]

 I think we're on the same page here Teri. I agree that peaceful Muslims don't follow 'those' passages literally. Just like Christians don't 'stone' homosexuals or adulterers.

Prime#

[Guest Xan]

That's great, Teri!  Praise G-d!

[Freedom]

By golly Prime, there is hope for you yet!!!!

We don't stone sinners Prime, because the bible doesn't teach us to, Christ changed all of that BEFORE the quran was even written.

If a muslim is going to try and do as the Koran teaches, then they will kill infidels that will not convert.
Because that is what Mohammed taught them to do.

The peaceful muslims are like the lukewarm Christians, that say there is a God, but I'm too busy to be bothered with all that right now, because life is taxing.

Once these muslims decide to get serious about their god, then they are a threat to all NON muslims.

Christ taught a different Gospel all together.
His was truely based on love.