Washington: Condemning the bomb attack on the American Information Centre in Kathmandu, the US has said that this kind of act has no political or other justification.

"Nepalese security forces are now investigating. We are unaware, at this point, of anybody accepting the blame for the incident," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington yesterday (Sep 10, 2004).

Boucher said that the US embassy is working closely with Government authorities to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. "I would point out once again this kind of attack has no political or other justification." "The Nepal Travel Warning that we issued on July 21st did update the information from previous warnings. We will continue to review information pertaining to the safety and security of American citizens and then make decisions, as appropriate, on consular information sheets or travel warnings. We'll see if there is any change necessary in those," Boucher said.

Asked whether Maoist guerrillas were responsible for the attack, Boucher said, "I don't know that there is a conclusion at this point. They're still investigating. I think that's, at this point, an assumption put it that way that they are making. We'll wait and see what the investigation produces."

He said, "It was about 5:30 pm, local time, in Kathmandu (yesterday) when two small explosive devices were thrown (at the building)... No one was hurt. Property damage was slight. Most of the staff had already left for the day."