Bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad

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The hotel shortly after the attack

On September 20, 2008, a bomb attack was carried out on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad , the capital of Pakistan .

procedure

The attack came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari's first speech in front of parliament. A dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. At least 54 people were killed and at least 266 injured. The attack left a crater 20 meters wide and 6 meters deep in front of the hotel. The majority of the victims are Pakistanis, and more than fifteen were foreigners among those injured.

background

The aims and authors of the attack are still unknown today. American soldiers who were supposed to operate in Afghanistan were also housed in the hotel. The Pakistani and US authorities suspect Islamist groups with links to al-Qaeda . Links between Southeast Asian Islamists and al-Qaeda have been established earlier.

The Marriott is one of the most prestigious hotels in the capital and is close to government buildings and diplomatic missions. It was popular with foreigners and the Pakistani elite. The hotel has been the target of militants once before. In 2007 one person was killed in a suicide bombing and the assassin was killed in an attack on the hotel.

consequences

In an immediate response to the attack, British Airways suspended flights to Pakistan with immediate effect. They were only resumed in 2019.

Al-Qaeda terrorist Qari Yasin was killed in a drone attack by US forces in Paktia province on March 19, 2017 . According to the US, he was responsible for the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.

Media processing

In the film Zero Dark Thirty , released in 2012, the attack is depicted and reflected on in the course of the search and later killing of Osama bin Laden .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ US Marines could have been the Marriott target. Malaysia Sun online, September 20, 2008 ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / story.malaysiasun.com
  2. ^ New York Times online, September 20, 2008
  3. Bilveer Singh: The Talibanization of Southeast Asia . Greenwood 2007, ISBN 0-275-99995-5 Google Book Search
  4. British Airways suspends Pakistan flights indefinitely after Islamabad hotel bombing . Retrieved March 20, 2012. 
  5. ^ British Airways to resume Pakistan flights next week after a decade . In: Reuters . May 24, 2019 ( reuters.com [accessed September 27, 2019]).
  6. Dozens of dead in Peru. In: defense.gov . March 26, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017 .

Web links

Coordinates: 33 ° 43 '58.1 "  N , 73 ° 5' 13.6"  E