Bombing at Hotel in Pakistan Kills 2

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Friday, killing the guard and wounding seven other people. The explosion wrecked a side entrance leading to the luxury hotel often frequented by foreigners.

The U.S. Embassy strongly advised all Americans to avoid the area of the bombing, to exercise caution, and to limit unnecessary travel. Security is already high in Pakistan amid fears of sectarian violence during Ashoura, a Shiite religious festival.

There was no claim of responsibility. However, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the explosion was the work of "anti-state elements who want to create unrest." He said the "brave and timely action by the hotel guards prevented a major attack, as the suicide bomber could not enter the hotel building, which seemed to be his target."

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf condemned the bombing and reiterated Pakistan's "unwavering commitment in the fight against extremism and terrorism," the state-run news agency reported.

Pakistan has suffered many bombings in recent years, often by Islamic militants angered by its support of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, although such attacks in the federal capital are comparatively rare.

Last week, a pro-Taliban militant leader in the remote tribal region of South Waziristan vowed to avenge a Pakistani airstrike on a suspected al-Qaida hideout near the Afghan border that killed at least eight people. A suicide car bombing Monday killed four Pakistani soldiers in neighboring North Waziristan.

Rana Najam, a housekeeping manager at the Marriott, said witnesses recalled seeing a man running toward the side entrance, where he was stopped by the security guard. The man then detonated his explosives, killing himself and the guard, he said.

An intelligence official at the scene identified the dead guard as Mohammed Tariq and said at least seven other people were wounded. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police official Abdul Ghaffar said another hotel guard was in a critical condition.

Scores of police used wooden boards and white sheets to seal off the scene, but an Associated Press reporter could see that the side entrance was badly damaged.

Two shoes and strips of clothes could be seen among lumps of masonry strewn across a road next to the entrance. The windshields of two cars parked nearby were shattered.

The hotel, near the Parliament building and the office of the president, was targeted in an October 2004 bombing that wounded several people. There were no reports of foreigners hurt in Friday's blast.

The last major attack in Islamabad was in May 2005, when a suicide bomber killed 20 people in the Bari Imam shrine, burial place of a famed Shiite saint.

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Associated Press Writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.