A massive suicide truck bomb gutted the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital Saturday, killing at least 40 people and injuring hundreds. Dozens more were feared dead inside the building that was still burning hours after the attack.

The targeting of the American hotel chain appeared to be one of the largest terrorist attacks ever in Pakistan and came at a time of growing anger in Pakistan over a wave of cross-border strikes on militant bases by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The bomb left a vast crater some 30 feet deep in front of the main building, where rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies. The fire was still burning six hours after the blast and had devastated most of the five-story hotel, sending up a thick pall of smoke over the area.

The bombing came just hours after President Asif Ali Zardari made his first address to Parliament, less than a mile away from the hotel, and days ahead of the new leader’s meeting with President Bush Tuesday in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Rehman Malik, head of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, told the AP authorities had received intelligence that there might be militant activity timed to coincide with Zardari’s inaugural address and security had been tightened.

Witnesses and officials said the truck exploded about 60 feet away from the hotel at two heavy metal barriers blocking the entrance. It went off at about 8 p.m., when four restaurants inside would have been packed with diners at the hour that Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The Marriott had been a favorite place for foreigners as well as Pakistani politicians and business people to stay and socialize in Islamabad despite repeated militant attacks on the hotel. One American was confirmed among the dead.

(Associated Press)