Bomber Kills 5 at U.N. Office in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 5 -- An apparent suicide bomber set off an explosion inside the heavily guarded office of the United Nations' World Food Program on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding five others, according to police and U.N. officials.

The midday explosion occurred in the lobby of the three-story United Nations office building where about 80 people work, roughly a quarter of them foreigners. The building is protected by walls, security cameras and several armed guards and police.

A police official in Islamabad, Bin Yamin, told reporters that the blast was likely caused by a suicide bomber. Authorities were investigating how a bomber could have entered such a secure location.

"It was most likely a suicide blast, as we have recovered a skull and legs of the suspected bomber from the scene," Yamin said.

Police are reviewing footage from surveillance cameras along with the log of visitors, and security guards are being questioned, he said.

In a statement, the World Food Program said five people working for the agency were confirmed dead after the attack and that a number of others were hospitalized with injuries, some of them critical. The dead included two Pakistani women.

The agency listed the confirmed fatalities as an Iraqi information and communication technology officer, Botan Ahmed Ali al-Hayawi, and four Pakistanis: Abid Rehman, a senior finance assistant; Gulrukh Tahir, a receptionist; Farzana Barkat, an office assistant; and Mohammed Wahab, a finance assistant.

A spokesman for the World Food Program in Islamabad, Amjad Jamal, said five other Pakistanis were wounded in the blast.

"We are trying to determine what actually happened, whether somebody entered into the building or something was planted or thrown inside," he said, adding that some evidence suggests a suicide bombing.

"All of the victims were humanitarian heroes working on the front lines of hunger in a country where WFP food assistance is providing a lifeline to millions," the agency's executive director, Josette Sheeran, said in a statement. "This is a tragedy -- not just for WFP -- but for the whole humanitarian community and for the hungry."

The world's largest humanitarian agency, WFP provides food assistance to as many as 10 million people across Pakistan, including up to 2 million civilians who were displaced by fighting in the Swat Valley region earlier this year.

The bombing was the latest in a series of blasts that have rocked Islamabad in recent years. Taliban and other militant groups have carried out major attacks on other locations where foreigners work or visit, including restaurants and hotels. In September 2008, a truck laden with explosives rammed into the Marriott Hotel, killing 52 people.