Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai said
Abdullah, the target of a huge manhunt after the kidnapping of the engineers
last month, made the claim after contacting him by telephone from an undisclosed
location on Sunday.
"We carried out the Marriott bomb blast," Yusufzai quoted him as saying.
An explosion hit the Marriott Hotel on Thursday, injuring seven people,
including a U.S. diplomat, two Italians and the Pakistani prime minister's chief
security officer.
The government and the hotel immediately said it was not a terrorist attack
and was most probably caused by an electrical short circuit.
But the State Department said it believed the blast, which happened while 11
U.S. officials were at the hotel for a dinner, was caused by a bomb and the U.S.
embassy has advised its citizens to stay away from the Marriott.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed dismissed Abdullah's claim. "He just
wants to play to the gallery, the media," he said. "It was an electrical short
circuit."
Intelligence advisory service Stratfor said indications were that the blast
was caused by a sophisticated explosive device intended to harm Westerners, U.S.
diplomats or the Western hotel chain.
Abdullah had said a U.S. and a British national were killed in the blast,
said Yusufzai, who has many years of experience covering Afghanistan. Reuters
witnesses saw no such casualties.
Abdullah threatened to carry out more bombings, but did not elaborate,
Yusufzai said.
The Pakistani army began hunting Abdullah in the rugged semi-autonomous South
Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan after he masterminded
the kidnapping of Chinese engineers on Oct. 9, testing ties with key Pakistani
ally China.
One of the hostages and all of the kidnappers, whom Abdullah had directed
from a secret location, were killed when Pakistani commandos launched a rescue
operation six days later.
Senior Pakistani military officials said last month Abdullah was thought to
be in the Spinkai Raghzai area of South Waziristan with other al Qaeda suspects,
but was constantly on the move.
South Waziristan has been the scene of fierce clashes between security forces
and al Qaeda-linked militants in recent months. Hundreds of al Qaeda fighters,
including Chechens, Uzbeks and Arabs, are believed to be hiding in the region.
