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https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=100164 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Islamabad Heightened Security CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS South / Central Asia - Pakistan 9 Apr 2009 RELATED REPORTS 3 Apr 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: PAKISTAN TERROR THREAT 30 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: PAKISTAN POLICE TRAINING CENTER ATTACK 17 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: PAKISTAN CONSULAR SECTION REOPENING 14 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: PAKISTAN LONG MARCH CLOSURES 12 Mar 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: PAKISTAN LONG MARCH DEMONSTRATIONS STARTING MARCH 12 U.S. Embassy Islamabad released the following Warden message on April 9: This Warden Notice is to notify American citizens that...

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bombing at a crowded Shiite mosque south of Pakistan's capital killed 22 people Sunday, the latest evidence of how security in the U.S.-allied nation is crumbling well beyond the Afghan border region where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters thrive. The violence came as a senior Pakistani Taliban commander said his group was behind a deadly suicide bombing Saturday night in Islamabad and promised two more attacks per week in the country if the U.S. does not stop missile strikes on Pakistani territory.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Friday affirmed a tripling of US economic aid to Pakistan to $ 1.5 billion annually over the next five years, calling it a ''down payment'' for America’s future security even though he unambiguously accused the country of being a safe haven for al-Qaida and its leadership. Obama announced what seemed like a buy-out strategy while unveiling his administration’s new Af-Pak policy in which there was a pronounced shift to Pakistan as the central front in the so-called war on terror. In an oblique indictment of Islamabad, Obama implied that Pakistan's military strategy was the...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Posted By:Catherine MoyPermalinkPakistan Creates Safe-haven for Taliban Taliban now have safe haven in Pakistan It’s tough to tell who’s a friend or foe, especially in the Middle East. Pakistan, which was (kind of) an ally during the Bush Adminstration, has now created a safe area for Taliban, the monstrous terrorists whom our troops are fighting. Here’s the story from FOX News.com: MINGORA, Pakistan — NATO warned Tuesday that Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in the former tourist haven...

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: Al Qaeda’s operations chief in Pakistan and a top aide have been killed, Pakistani officials confirmed on Friday. Operations chief Osama Al-Kini was thought responsible for attacks including the bombing of Marriott hotel in Islamabad and an unsuccessful attempt to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Al-Kini and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, both Kenyans, were killed in a missile strike in South Waziristan on January 1. Security officials in Islamabad said Al-Kini’s killing would relieve the security apparatus of a ‘big worry’. agencies

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States is entangled in an Islamist web from Afghanistan to India that exposes its reliance on Pakistan as a central but increasingly fragile ally in the war on terror, analysts say. The 60-hour siege last month in Mumbai, even if it is eventually proven to have been masterminded by Kashmiri separatists, advances broader Islamist aims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and beyond, they add. And nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has long backed various Islamist groups, is more than ever central to the growth of the militant problem in all three countries and a key to their solution....

Excerpt - All flights in Pakistan have been suspended after a major security alert at Islamabad airport, according to reports. The country's civil aviation authority is said to have instituted a state of emergency. A huge search is underway at Islamabad airport after a phone call saying the building would be blown up at 12.40pm local time (7.40pm UK time), say local TV reports. ~ snip ~

Excerpt - Karachi, 24 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged. The suspect, Qari Zafar (photo), has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province. Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to...

SLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani soldiers and tribesman shot down a suspected U.S. military drone close to the Afghan border Tuesday night, three intelligence officials said. If verified, it apparently would be the first time a pilotless aircraft was brought down over Pakistan and likely would add to tensions between Washington and Islamabad over recent American cross-border incursions into the country's lawless tribal regions. The three officials said the aircraft was hit at the village of Jalal Khel in South Waziristan after circling the area for several hours. Wreckage was strewn on the ground, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity...

Pakistan’s fledging democracy faced its first and greatest challenge last weekend. A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with more than 1,000 pounds of explosives blew himself up early Saturday evening outside Islamabad’s luxury Marriott Hotel, killing 53 people and wounding several hundred. Most of the dead were Muslim guests who were breaking their day-long, Ramadan fast in the hotel restaurant when the bombing occurred.

Dramatic footage from a devasting attack on Islamabad's Marriott Hotel which killed at least 53 people suggests that the death toll could have been far worse if the bomber had been able to ram his truck through a security barrier. More than 250 people were injured in the blast, which officials and investigators immediately blamed on an al-Qaeda affiliate operating out of a tribal area near the Afghan border. They included six Britons, one of them a minor. Four foreigners were killed: the Czech ambassador, his Vietnamese partner and two Americans.

via translation - ALERT - Pakistan: the Czech ambassador was killed PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's ambassador to Pakistan, which had called for help from the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad shortly after the attack Saturday, died Sunday announced in Prague public television CT 24.

Many people were trapped in rooms of the burning five-star Marriott Hotel in the Pakistan capital after a suicide bomber detonated a large truck loaded with a ton of explosives at the hotel gate, killing at least 60 people and injuring some 200 more. The Marriott, frequented by foreigner and local VIPs and the hotel of choice for American officials, is danger of collapse. The ceiling of the banqueting hall crashed down on 500 guests at the Ramadan evening meal.

Dozens dead in Pakistan hotel blast At least 40 people were killed and 100 wounded in the explosion at the Marriott [AFP] At least 40 people have been killed and 100 others wounded after a truck-bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. Reports said a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the entrance of the hotel. Many foreigners stay in the hotel while visiting Pakistan and it is heavily guarded. The blast resounded through Islamabad. Reuters news agency reported that at least 40 people had been killed. Police sources also said the death toll stood at 40. But there were fears the death toll could rise as many...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A huge explosion ripped through part of the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital Saturday, damaging buildings in a wide radius, killing at least two people and wounding at least 25.

via translation - Thousands of Islamists commemorate the storming of the Red Mosque Thousands of Islamist radicals gathered in Islamabad to celebrate the first anniversary of the bloody storming of the Red Mosque. The capital of Pakistan is placed under high surveillance. Many demonstrators deemed close to the Taliban and Al Qaeda brandissaient black flags and slogans scandaient paying tribute to the "martyrs" of the headquarters of the Red Mosque. The police established a security perimeter around the mosque, inaccessible by car, with son barbed wire and search pedestrians in the search for possible weapons. "We demand to act against...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — A blast occurred Monday outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, causing casualties, police and security officials said. "Yes, there has been a blast at the Danish embassy but we are not sure whether it was inside or out," local police official Mohammad Shabir told AFP. Security officials said there were several casualties.

Secretary General of the World Assembly for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri said on Saturday that Islamic unity charter has been compiled. In a meeting with Pakistani prominent Shia and Sunni ulema in Islamabad, he said the charter has outlined the commonalties shared by different Islamic sects. Referring to emphasis made by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for promotion of solidarity among the world Muslim nations, he said compilation of the Islamic unity charter is in line with the Supreme Leader's guidelines. He expressed the hope that during his stay in Pakistan, the charter...

US officials have confirmed that four FBI agents were among those injured in a bomb attack in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Saturday. A Turkish aid worker died and at least 10 other foreigners, including several US diplomats, were wounded in the blast at the Luna Caprese Italian restaurant in Islamabad on Saturday evening.Violence linked to Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents has left at least 600 people dead since the start of the year and posed a major challenge to the country's incoming Government after last month's elections."This was the first attack in which foreigners have been targeted in Islamabad since...

Foreigners’ haunt bombed in capital: woman dead By Mohammad Asghar March 16, 2008 ISLAMABAD, March 15: Terrorists on Saturday night targeted a popular hang-out of foreign nationals, mostly western diplomats and journalists, by hitting the place with a powerful explosive device, killing a Turkish woman and injuring over a dozen guests who were having their weekend dinner. The Turkish lady who died in the blast at Luna Caprese, an Italian restaurant, was believed to be a nurse working at a western embassy in Islamabad. Among the injured brought to the local hospitals four were identified as US citizens, two were...