US Embassy gives urgent warning there could be attack on American tourists at Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital – just days after fatal suicide bomber attacked the area
- The US Embassy in Islamabad warned of a possible attack on Americans at the Marriott over the holiday season
- It is banning Americans from visiting the popular hotel and urged all personnel to refrain from non-essential travel
- The advisory comes just two days after a terrorist detonated a bomb at a police checkpoint in the city
- The explosion killed the occupants of the vehicle and a police officer, and injured five others
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Sunday warned its staff of a possible attack on Americans at a top hotel in Pakistan’s capital as the city remains on high alert following a suicide bombing earlier in the week.
The U.S. government is aware of information that ‘unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays,’ the embassy said in a security alert.
The advisory banned its American personnel from visiting the popular hotel over the holiday season, and urged all personnel to refrain from non-essential travel in Islamabad.
The embassy directive came just two days after a suicide bombing in a residential area of the capital killed a police officer and wounded ten others.
The US Embassy in Pakistan is warning of a possible attack over the holiday season at the Marriott in Islamabad
The popular hotel was previously attacked by a suicide bomber back in 2008
The explosion happened when police stopped a taxi for inspection during a patrol.
According to the police, a rear seat passenger detonated explosives he was carrying, blowing up the vehicle and killing themselves.
One police officer also did in the explosion, and five others were injured.
Militants with the Pakistani Taliban, who are separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s rulers, later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Islamabad’s officials have since put the city on high alert, banning public gatherings and processions, even as campaigns are ongoing for upcoming local elections.
Police have also stepped up patrols and established snap checkpoints to inspect vehicles across the city.
The attack came less than one month after the Pakistani Taliban ended a ceasefire with the government.
The ceasefire had been brokered by the new Taliban-run government in Afghanistan, and had been in place since May.
The government feared at the time that a spillover in terror activities could affect investments in the country, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to Bloomberg.
It had already been facing pressure from Beijing to protect the project after a bus explosion in July last year killed 12 workers, including nine Chinese citizens.
Speaking of the attack on Friday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said ‘terrorists are Pakistan’s enemy.
‘This country will be cleaned of this evil.’
On Friday, a terrorist detonated a bomb during a police stop in Islamabad
The explosion killed the occupants of the vehicle and a police officer, and injured five others
Violence in the country has been escalating over the past year, with the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies finding militant violence spiked 24 percent in the first 11 months of this year, when compared to the same time period in 2021.
The Pakistani Taliban has also killed more than 70,000 over the past few decades and are responsible for some of Pakistan’s worst terrorist attacks, including one on an army school that killed 150 people in Peshawar in 2014.
And back in 2008, the Marriot was targeted by a suicide bomber in one of the deadliest such incidents in the nation’s capital.
Authorities said attackers drove a dump truck up to the hotel’s gates before detonating it, killing 63 people and wounding over 250 others.
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