KARACHI, 9 May — Fourteen people, 11 of them French Navy experts, were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber rammed a stolen Toyota Corolla car laden with explosives into the bus they were boarding on way to work. Twenty-three people — 12 French and 11 Pakistanis — were wounded in the blast outside the Sheraton Hotel in this southern Pakistani port city, Information Minister Nisar Memon said
The French were involved in a joint submarine construction project. The French company involved in the project, Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN), said it was recalling all expatriate workers from Pakistan.
Both Pakistani police and French officials said they suspected that Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network could be behind the attack. French armed forces Chief of Staff Gen. Jean-Pierre Kelche said there was a "significant likelihood" that Al-Qaeda was responsible. He said the bombers had targeted the West in general and specifically countries participating in the US-led multinational coalition fighting Al-Qaeda and Taleban extremists in Afghanistan, to which France has contributed Mirage jets. Sindh provincial police chief Kamal Shah said: "We cannot rule out the involvement of Al-Qaeda."
Analysts said the attack had several Al-Qaeda traits, such as the use of a suicide bomber, the targeting of Western civilians involved in defense-related fields, the absence of an immediate claim of responsibility and the devastating amount of high explosives used.
Muhammad Afzal Niazi, a political analyst, said suicide bombing was unheard of in Pakistan.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called an emergency meeting of his security chiefs and told them Pakistan was being subjected to a systematic terrorist campaign "for its bold and courageous stand against international terrorism".
French President Jacques Chirac also reaffirmed "France’s determination to do everything possible to fight international terrorism". Chirac dispatched his defense minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, to Pakistan and she will be followed by officers from the anti-terrorist section and the DST counter-intelligence service.
A specially equipped German medical plane was expected to arrive in Karachi today to fly those capable of being moved back to military hospitals in France.
