It was not immediately known who planted the bomb.
Police at the scene said seven people were killed in the blast.
Officials said the car exploded outside a bank in a shopping center near the U.S. Embassy, which is a heavily secured fortress-style building in an upscale district of the capital.
Radio reports said several buildings were badly damaged and three cars were on fire.
Bush, who leaves Washington Thursday for a U.N. development conference in Monterrey, Mexico, was due to arrive in Lima Saturday for his first visit to South America.
U.S. officials were not immediately available to comment on the attack.
Peru was rocked by leftist rebel violence by the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, guerrilla groups in the 1980s and 1990s whose wars on the state cost 30,000 lives.
Peruvian authorities said late last year it had foiled a Shining Path attack on the embassy and other U.S. missions.
Peru Arrests Pakistani on Terror Charges (11/20/01)
Of course, there's plenty of locals:
Peru uncovers terrorist plot to attack U.S. embassy [Shining Path](12/1/02)
"...Peruvian police arrested two suspected members of a leftist guerrilla group who they believe were plotting an attack against the U.S. Embassy, Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi said Saturday. The alleged members of the Shining Path group were arrested in Lima on Nov. 20 with diagrams of the U.S. Embassy, Rospigliosi said.
"The suspicion is that they were planning to carry out attacks against the American Embassy and against another site that is linked to U.S. interests," Rospigliosi told cable news station Channel N. He did not specify the other site, or provide information about the identity of the suspects.
The U.S. State Department warned American citizens on Saturday of "evidence of an increase in activity by members of the Shining Path terrorist organization."...
Then again, it may not have specifically targeted the embassy, the article says near the embassy.
I would ask you all to recall the recent terror warnings, about the possibility of al-Queda attacks here or abroad. They found those tapes of them casing the American embassies in the Far East . . . if this blast specifically targeted the embassy, this has the fingerprints of al-Queda all over it.
I apologize that I'm coming across harshly. You've just lost a lot of respect with your conduct on other threads. Perhaps your reputation (in my eyes at least) can be redeemed....
LIMA, Peru, March 21 — Nine people were killed Wednesday and 30 injured when a car bomb exploded near the U.S. Embassy in Lima three days before a visit by President Bush, police said.PERUVIAN Vice President Raul Diez Canseco said after an emergency early morning Cabinet meeting that Lima’s historic center would be sealed off and police patrols stepped up after Wednesday night’s blast “that leaves Peru in mourning.”
He said nine people died and 30 were injured in the blast.
It was not immediately known who planted the bomb, which exploded around 10:45 p.m. local time (10:45 p.m. ET) across the street from the embassy, recalling scenes of carnage from a decade ago when Peru was gripped by leftist rebel violence.
The blast was so powerful one body was blown about 165 feet across a dual carriageway separating the scene of the explosion from the embassy. The victim had a leg and clothes blown off. Part of a car engine lay nearby.
Diez Canseco said President Alejandro Toledo would fly home later on Thursday from a U.N. development summit in Monterrey, Mexico. Toledo condemned the bomb attack and guaranteed full safety for Bush during a 17-hour visit this weekend.
“My deepest condolences to the families of the victims who have been hit in such a cowardly way by a terrorist attack,” Toledo told RPP radio from Mexico, where he learned of the blast shortly after arriving.
“I want to express my strongest condemnation. ... We will not yield even a centimeter to terrorism,” he declared.
A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said no American citizens were hurt in the explosion. The official declined to comment further.
Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi rushed to the scene to assess the damage. Rospigliosi appealed for calm and said, “They’re not going to intimidate us.”
Officials said the car exploded outside a bank in a shopping center near the U.S. Embassy, which is a heavily secured fortress-style building in an upscale district of the capital. Radio reports said several buildings were badly damaged and three cars were on fire.
Television images showed scenes of chaos, with bodies covered in orange plastic sheets strewn amid broken glass, mangled metal and shattered tiles.
BUSH DUE SATURDAY
Bush, who leaves Washington Thursday for the U.N. development conference in Mexico, was due to arrive in Lima on Saturday for a meeting with President Toledo and leaders from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador
Toledo had already traveled to Monterrey to attend the summit.
The blast occurred in an area with popular late-night restaurants and movie theaters, according to media reports.
The explosion damaged a hotel and bank across the street from the embassy, witnesses said. The embassy suffered no apparent damage, according to news reports. It sits behind a 20-foot-high wall and is set far back from the street.
TWO OTHER ATTACKS
In a separate blast Wednesday, a small bomb exploded just before dawn outside an office of Peru’s Spanish-owned telephone company, police said. The explosion damaged the first floor of a Telefonica payment office in northern Lima but caused no injuries, the company said in a statement.
Police said an unidentified man left the explosive in a backpack in front of the building and then fled in a car.
On Tuesday night, a package containing a grenade was tossed from a moving car onto a street in northeastern Lima. The grenade exploded but there were no injuries, police said.
Peru was rocked by leftist rebel violence by the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerrilla groups in the 1980s and 1990s whose wars on the state cost 30,000 lives.
Peruvian authorities said late last year it had foiled a Shining Path attack on the embassy and other U.S. missions.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
CN18F, a ping for you...
Regards,