WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- President Bush pledged Sunday to find those responsible for grenade attack on a church in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, which killed five people including a U.S. Embassy employee and her teenage daughter.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the response to the attack, Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told reporters in Islamabad.
The five victims were among more than 70 worshippers crowded into the Protestant church for Sunday morning services when two unidentified men threw grenades inside the building and closed the door behind them.
"Five worshippers died in the blast while 45 others have been injured," Islamabad police chief Nasir Durrani told reporters outside the church.
A press note issued by Islamabad's district magistrate, Tariq Mehmood Khan, said that at least seven of the 45 injured were in serious condition.
The injured belong to eight different nationalities, the note said.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad identified the dead Americans as Barbara Green, who had worked at the embassy for two years, and her daughter Kristen Wormsley, 17, a senior at the American School in Islamabad.
An embassy spokesman, John Kenin, said Green's husband was also injured in the blast but did not disclose his name.
He added that several Americans had also been injured in the blast, none seriously, and said that there was a general travel warning against Americans visiting Pakistan even before the attack. Asked if the embassy staff would be evacuated, he said it was premature to speculate.
But U.S. Ambassador in Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin said that despite the attack "Americans will continue to stay in Pakistan."
She told a news conference that both President Bush and President Musharraf "have vowed to wipe out terrorism" and the attack on the church "justifies the bold actions taken by the two presidents."
Talking about the U.S. citizens killed in the attack, she said: "They were two friends I admired, respected and I loved. I extend my condolences to their families, I honor them for their lives, for the joy they brought to many and credit and honor they brought to the United States."
"I also wish to extend my condolences to the families of three other people killed in this senseless act," she said.
Chamberlain did not take any questions from journalists, telling them that she would answer their questions some other day, "because those of you who know me, my president and the United States, know that we will be here."
Kenin told the news conference that FBI and Pakistani police are jointly probing the attack but so far nobody has been arrested.
Two other victims were identified as an Afghan woman and a Pakistani national while the fifth was not identified till Sunday evening, causing some to speculate that he might have been among the attackers.
The local police, however, said they believed both the attackers escaped unhurt.
Sri Lanka's ambassador to Islamabad, his wife and child and the wife of a Japanese diplomat are among those seriously wounded, police said.
By Sunday evening, Pakistani authorities had deployed army troops in the diplomatic enclave of the Pakistani capital where the worshippers were attacked.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has described the bombing as "an attempt to harm Pakistan's national interest," and directed his security agencies to "come into action and track down the attackers as soon as possible."
In a statement issued by the White House Sunday morning, Bush said his administration will "work closely with the government of Pakistan to ensure those responsible for this terrorist attack face justice."
"I strongly condemn them as acts of murder that cannot be tolerated by any person of conscience nor justified by any cause," Bush said.
Close to the U.S., British, Indian, Canadian, German and several Arab embassies, the area around the church is one of the most heavily guarded in the country. Besides Pakistani policemen and security agencies, each embassy has its own security staff that patrols the area 24 hours a day. The U.S. Embassy also has built several roadblocks in the area and conducts a round-the-clock surveillance.
So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack but Durrani said the worshippers saw two men hurling four grenades inside the building.
"They closed the door while walking out to prevent the worshippers from escaping," he said. "Two of the four bombs exploded and two have been recovered unexploded."
He said it was not yet clear if it was an attack on Christians or Western diplomats were the targets.
There have been several attacks on the country's tiny Christian minority in the past. At least 15 Christians were killed in southern Pakistan four months ago when masked gunmen broke into a church and sprayed the worshippers were bullets.
But Pakistan's Law Minister Khalid Ranjha said he believes the extremist attack was politically -- not religiously -- motivated.
At least 18 people were killed in this area in November 1995, when militants bombed the nearby Egyptian Embassy after Pakistan handed over some of Osama bin Laden's alleged Arab supporters to the Egyptian authorities.
The Protestant International Church is Islamabad's main Protestant church and was used particularly by diplomats from Protestant countries.
"Everybody knew that the church was used by foreigners of all nationalities," said Durrani, explaining why he believed it was a terrorist attack. "It was an obvious target for those wanting to harm foreigners."
Pakistan's religious extremists had recently vowed to target Western installations across the country to show their rejection of President Musharraf's decision to support the U.S.-led war on terrorism. They are particularly upset with Musharraf for providing military bases to the United States for operations against the Taliban and al Qaida extremists in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told journalists at Islamabad Shifa Hospital, where some of the injured are admitted, that President Musharraf has convened a high-level emergency meeting to discuss the law and order situation in the country.
He said besides the federal Cabinet, governors of all the four provinces, provincial police chiefs and heads of civil and military intelligence agencies have been asked to attend the meeting.
