KARACHI/ISLAMABAD, 15 June — A huge car bomb blast outside the US Consulate in Karachi yesterday killed 11 people — all Pakistanis — and injured 40 others, including six consulate staff, officials said.

The blast prompted the United States to close its diplomatic missions in Pakistan as well as the American Center in Islamabad.

The embassy and American Center were closed to the public immediately after the blast, as were the consulates in Lahore and Peshawar, Lynn Cassel, a department spokeswoman, told AFP.

The missions were to remain closed to the public at least through the weekend, she said, adding that US diplomats would continue their work.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad said six of its staff in Karachi — a US Marine guard and five Pakistanis — were wounded in the attack.

A previously unheard of militant group has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

The Al-Qanoon organization hand-delivered photocopies of its statement to media organizations including AFP late yesterday. The hand-written message included a warning of further attacks.

Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, press spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said: “There could be a number of agencies and a number of groups responsible. A number of extremist groups are very upset at Pakistan aligning itself against terrorism in the world.

There are foreign intelligence agencies that do not want Pakistan to progress” — a veiled reference to India’s Research and Analysis Wing.

Police said the blast looked like a suicide bombing, similar to an attack on May 8 outside a nearby hotel in Karachi that killed 11 French engineers. The blast occurring at around 11 a.m. shook the high security Sir Abdullah Haroon Road and blew in the windows of the consulate and surrounding buildings, including the Marriott Hotel next door, destroyed around 20 cars and scattered body parts 100-200 meters down the road.

“It was a car bomb... The blast was so powerful that the vehicle flew from one side of the road to the other,” city police chief Tariq Jamil told AFP. “It appears to be a suicide bombing.” Another senior police official said authorities had been on alert for the past week for another Al-Qaeda attack, possibly to avenge the arrest in Pakistan of its members who have fled from Afghanistan.

“The modus operandi appears to be a work of highly trained people which is unlike the local activists of any militant groups,” the official said, requesting anonymity. “That is one reason why we are suspecting Al-Qaeda.”

A Western diplomat in Islamabad said it seemed the car bombings were connected. “I think most probably there is some link between the two,” he said. “This is really a scenario which we had feared and which now has happened.”

US condemned the bombing saying it was a “vivid reminder” of the dangers Americans faced in the war on terrorism.

“This is a vivid reminder of the fact that our nation is at war against terrorists who use any means at their disposal to harm Americans and others,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell conveyed his expressions of sympathy to President Pervez Musharraf in a phone call soon after the bombing occurred. President Bush said radical killers were behind the blast

India also condemned the blast and said it was grieved by the “terrorist activity”.

“It is a very sad and a very regrettable incident that we condemn fully,” Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters. “I am really grieved and unhappy that yet another terrorist activity of a suicide bomb variety has taken place in Karachi.”

Muhammad Irfan, 20, lost his father and a brother in the attack. “I don’t know who was behind this blast, but if I find them, I will ask them what was the fault of my father and young brother,” he said in tears at the hospital where his relatives’ bodies were taken.

Police sources said the vehicle used in the attack was either a small high-roofed Suzuki van or a Toyota Corolla. Both had been traveling along the road on which the consulate is situated before the blast.

The bomb was detonated when the vehicle reached the corner of the compound and the huge explosion that followed destroyed part of the perimeter wall of the consulate, but left the main gate intact.

A deep crater was blasted into the road immediately next to the perimeter wall and the vehicle exploded into pieces, some of which were thrown onto the other side of the road and into a park facing the consulate.

Shock waves from the car bomb damaged property in a one km radius of the area, blowing out shop windows and car windscreens and stripping leaves from trees. (The Independent)