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AROUND THE WORLD 2: Close Call for Pakistani President

As of Thursday, December 25th, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf escaped not one, but two assassination attempts less than two weeks apart. As he was on his way to the capital Islamabad, in the north of Pakistan, two suicide bombers crashed their vehicles into his motorcade, a kind of caravan that most presidents use when traveling. Usually there are security guards at many points along the motorcade. The attackers also carried car bombs that went off when they crashed.

The President was unhurt, but the bombs killed at least 14 people (including the suicide bombers) and wounded another 46. That makes this recent attack much deadlier and scarier than the first, carried out on December 14, which involved a half-ton bomb but didn’t kill anyone. Both attacks took place within 200 yards of each other in the city of Rawalpindi, which is the headquarters of the Pakistani army. Because people expect the military to keep this city guarded and safe, some are wondering how assassins could get inside twice and come so close to killing the President. Some even think they may have had help from the "inside" because some police or military officials disagree with Musharraf.

The President has enemies on many fronts. On one hand, he officially sided with the U.S. after the September 11 attacks in 2001 by opposing the Taliban in Afghanistan; before that, his country supported this extremist Islam group. Pakistan is not an Arab country, but it is Islamic, so there is still a good deal of sympathy and support for Islamic groups in other countries, regardless of how extreme they may be. Also, Afghanistan sits right next door to the west of Pakistan, and bad relations between the two neighbors could easily cause conflict.

On the other hand, people complain Musharraf isn’t doing enough to set up democracy in Pakistan and get rid of the terrorist groups once and for all. He faces critics on both sides, but said on national television that "terrorists and extremists" were responsible for the attacks. Pakistani officials don’t quite know who committed the crimes, but suspect men from Arab countries crossed into the country and planned the bombings.

And who was behind all this planning? The answer may be simply a videotape that was released about two months ago. Supposedly, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command (right below Osama bin Laden) appeared on the video and urged the overthrow of President Musharraf.

--Written by Kari Elassal

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