June 15, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1423

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HOUSTON, Texas, June 14: President George W. Bush on Friday blamed “radical killers” for the apparent suicide bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi that killed 10 people and shuttered US diplomatic missions in Pakistan.

“We fight an enemy that are radical killers. That’s what they are,” he told reporters as he toured a summer camp here after the car-bombing.

“These people, if they think they’re going to intimidate the United States they do not understand the United States of America,” he added. “We will continue to hunt them down and seek justice.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to discuss the investigation into the attack and pledged continued US assistance in fighting terrorism in the country, the State Department said.

“We’ll continue to work with Pakistani authorities on the investigation of this, as well as on joint work together against terrorism,” deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said.

“They claim they’re religious people, and they blow up Muslims. They have no regard for individual life,” said President Bush, who added that his heart and prayers went out to the victims and their families.

The bombing — which damaged the Karachi consulate and killed 10 people, none of them US government employees — slightly wounded a US Marine guard and five local Pakistani employees at the mission, Cassel said.

FRANCE CONDEMNS: France denounced the car-bomb attack on the United States consulate in Karachi that left five men and five women dead, recalling a bombing there last month that killed 11 French nationals.

“France, marked by an attack in the same city, is determined to fight terrorism everywhere that it exists,” said foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau.