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US links Pak blasts to Taliban sanctions

The United States has said it was unclear who fired rockets at US and United Nations facilities in Pakistan, but officials linked the attack to sanctions set to take effect in two days against Afghanistan's Taliban movement.

''It's a barbaric way to send a message if that's what it is,'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said of the blasts in Islamabad yesterday.

''The United States strongly condemns these attacks,'' state department spokesman James Rubin said.

The state department, White House and intelligence officials all said it was not yet clear who was responsible for the attacks. ''We can't rule out anybody until the investigation continues,'' Rubin said.

But a US intelligence official, noting the attacks targeted UN offices, said, ''It's looking like it's probably related somehow to the UN sanctions issue.''

Beginning tomorrow, the United Nations is to impose US-backed sanctions on the Taliban unless Afghanistan deports Saudi-born dissident Osama Bin Laden to face charges he masterminded the bombing of two US embassies in Africa last year that killed more than 200 people.

Reuters

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