Pakistanis Admit to Role in Car Bombing

Paramilitary commandos stormed houses in this port city Monday and arrested three members of a banned militant group suspected in a bombing outside the U.S. Consulate last month.

The three are members of Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen al-Almi, Maj. Gen. Salahuddin Satti said. The organization is a splinter group of Harkat-ul-Moujahedeen, an extremist group whose members fought in Afghanistan, provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah said.

Authorities said they also seized large quantities of explosives and weapons, which were displayed at a news conference Monday evening along with two of the accused men, who admitted their guilt in the June 14 bombing, which killed at least 12 Pakistanis.

The two admitted their involvement and said the car bomb used outside the consulate had originally been prepared for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The men--identified as Mohammed Imran and Mohammed Hanif--said they tried to detonate the bomb near Musharraf’s motorcade in Karachi in April, but the remote control malfunctioned.

“I, along with my other friends, were involved in the U.S. bombing,” said Hanif. “One of our friends, who was willing to be a suicide bomber, carried out the attack.”