Suicide Bombing At Pakistan Airport

A suicide attacker detonated a bomb in a parking area at the international airport that serves Pakistan's capital late Tuesday, wounding at least two police and killing himself, officials said.

A security official stopped the bomber, who was on foot, said Mohammed Farooq, a police official at the central control room in Rawalpindi where the airport is located. After a brief exchange of fire, the attacker detonated the bomb, he said.

"This attack demonstrates that al Qaeda is very eager to destabilize Pakistan," a senior western diplomat tells CBS News reporter Farhan Bokhari on the condition that he would not be named. The diplomat said Pakistan was in danger of witnessing more suicide attacks.

Mohammed Sarib, who was at the airport to collect someone arriving on a flight, said he saw a man exchanging fire with security officials. "That man later blew himself up," he told The Associated Press.

The bombing follows a series of suicide attacks targeting security forces in northwestern Pakistan, where pro-Taliban militants are active, and a Jan. 26 blast at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel that killed one security guard and wounded seven other people.

After Tuesday's attack, Pakistan placed its main airports on high alert across the country and ordered added security measures, adds Bokhari. Pakistani officials, however, agreed that these attacks were set to intensify concerns over the country's internal security conditions at a time when General Pervez Musharraf was eager to encourage western nationals to travel to the country. "As a reaction to these incidents, it's likely that people would want to stay away from Pakistan," said one senior official who spoke to CBS News on the condition that his identity would not be revealed.

Authorities suspect the bombings could be in retaliation to a recent Pakistani army air strike on an suspected al Qaeda hideout near the Afghan border that a prominent Pakistani militant vowed to avenge.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information to reporters, said airport security officials arrested a man who was trying to flee. It was unclear whether the detained man was a suspected accomplice of the suicide attacker.