Developing: Benazir Bhutto Assassinated in Pakistan
by John Little on 27/12/2007It was just a matter of time but this is still a major victory for the Islamists:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday after addressing a large gathering of her supporters.
The suicide bomb attack also killed at least 22 others, doctors said. It was not immediately clear if Bhutto died from shots fired before the blast, or from wounds caused by bomb shrapnel.
President Pervez Musharraf held an emergency meeting in the hours after the death, according to state media.
He said the killers were the same extremists that Pakistan is fighting a war against, and announced three days of national mourning.
White this may have been inevitable you have to wonder why more precautions weren’t taken. Video shows her leaving the rally in single unarmored vehicle. She was a sitting duck. She didn’t stand a chance.
I’m wondering what supporting role, if any, hostile elements in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or other parts of its security/military structure might have played in this attack. Despite the speculation, which will continute, I doubt that they were the primary players. Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility:
“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.
It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.
The BBC has an obituary up:
Benazir Bhutto followed her father into politics, and both of them died because of it – he was executed in 1979, she fell victim to an apparent suicide bomb attack.
Her two brothers also suffered violent deaths.
BoW reaser Steve posted a link to live coverage at India’s NDTV in the comments section.
Getty Images has some horrific photos of the attack and its aftermath.
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