Angry supporters rioted in her home city, the southern port of Karachi, The Associated Press reported, shooting at police officers, setting tires and cars on fire and burning a gas station.

In a brief televised address, President Pervez Musharraf called for support from the Pakistani people and declared three days of mourning. “This is a great tragedy which I cannot describe in words,” he said, according to a report on state-run media.

He blamed terrorists for the attack, saying “Pakistan and the nation faces the greatest threat from these terrorists.”

Condemnation of the assassination flowed in from around the world. President Bush called it a “cowardly attack by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy.” The White House said Mr. Bush called Mr. Musharraf early Thursday afternoon.

In a statement on the United Nations Web site, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, called the killing “an assault on stability.”

Ms. Bhutto’s death is the latest upset in Pakistan’s treacherous political situation, and leaves her party leaderless in the short term and likely to be unable to effectively compete in hotly contested parliamentary elections that are two weeks away, according to Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani political and military analyst.

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Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Asia • Pakistan

1. Jeffersonian wrote: The loss of Bhutto herself is, aside from the death of one of God’s children being a tragedy in and of itself, no great loss to Pakistan.  She and her family were flamboyantly corrupt and venal.  The true loss to Pakistan is the opportunity to engage in a meaningful democratic process and to transfer power to a successor without bloodshed and with at least some minimal patina of a mandate.  Now Musharraf will hang on, however precariously, with little backing for what needs to be done in the lawless West of the nation. December 27, 9:02 pm | [comment link]

2. Reactionary wrote: Pakistan needs less democracy, not more, if America’s foreign policy goals in the region are to be accomplished. December 28, 10:35 am | [comment link]

3. Tom Roberts wrote: #2- ... goals, such as… ? December 28, 10:41 am | [comment link]

4. Reactionary wrote: The elimination of militant Islamic cells and a functioning state in Afghanistan. December 28, 10:55 am | [comment link]

5. Bob from Boone wrote: Another assasination/suicide bombing in Pakistan causing the murder of a major political figure (whatever anyone thinks of her politics) cannot be good either for Pakistan or the region or the US. December 28, 11:52 am | [comment link]

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