Security Council slams Islamabad blast

The UN Security Council on Monday condemned the truck bombing that killed at least 60 people in an Islamabad hotel and stressed those responsible must be brought to justice.

A non-binding statement issued after a council meeting “condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that occurred in Islamabad” Saturday and underlined “the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism to justice.”

It reaffirmed that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.”

A suicide bomber rammed a truck loaded with half a ton of explosives into the security gates at Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel Saturday, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than 260.

A shadowy group calling itself the “Fedayeen of Islam” claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing of Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel in a telephone call to Al-Arabiya television, the channel said Monday.

The authenticity of the claim could not be verified, the channel added.

Pakistan has blamed al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies based in Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan for the attack, and investigators said they were now hunting an Islamabad-based al Qaeda cell.