Macedonia sees al-Qaeda behind Karachi attack

Macedonia said yesterday Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group may have bombed its consulate in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi, where three people were found dead, police said.

"According to unofficial information, a possible organizer of the attack could be a Pakistani cell of the al Qaeda network," the Macedonian foreign ministry said in a written statement.

No group has claimed responsibility for yesterday's blast, described by Pakistani authorities as an act of terrorism. Three people, including a security guard, were found dead at the site but police believe they were killed before the blast.

Macedonian foreign ministry official Santa Argirova said later the information came from its consul, who said a message had been left on the walls of the destroyed building.

Argirova quoted the message as saying: "We are from al Qaeda-Pakistan. We will treat the unbelievers the way they treat us. This is just a warning."

Macedonia sent a protest to Pakistan, condemning the attack and demanding an investigation. It asked Pakistan to guarantee the consul's security.

Macedonia ordered its embassies to heighten security as other messages on the wall threatened new attacks.

Pakistani police said the three dead at the site appeared to have been murdered before the blast at the one-storey villa in the Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood .

One victim was a security guard. Two other bodies, one a middle-aged woman, had not yet been identified.

Argirova also said the consul suggested the attack could be related to a recent protest in Karachi by the families of six Pakistanis killed in Macedonia in March.

The Pakistanis were killed in an ambush, which Macedonian police called a pre-emptive raid on "Muslim terrorists." But the claim was never accepted by Western powers and subsequent media reports said the men were migrants heading for Western Europe.

A spokesman for the Macedonian president has denied any link between the two cases.

A crane was at the blast site lifting debris. Rescue workers were at the scene and police scoured the rubble for clues.