Posted by Randy Lilleston

Al-Qaeda is to blame for Thursday's assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a government spokesman just said at a news conference.

The government has intercepted an e-mail between al-Qaeda operatives, congratulating one for successfully executing the attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Jared Iqbal Cheema just told reporters.
Cheema also said Bhutto had "no foreign element in her body" when she was brought to a hospital, raising questions about what killed her.

Various reports have said she was struck by bomb shrapnel or shot; CNN reports that no autopsy was performed on Bhutto before she was buried earlier today.

"We have irrefutable evidence that al-Qaeda, its network and its cohorts are trying to destabilize Pakistan," he said, running down a series of terror attack against government and opposition officials in recent months.

Update at 11:56 a.m. ET: More information is filtering out about the news conference; Pakistani officials are saying Bhutto appears to have died from a skull fracture. Cable networks are showing video footage provided by the Pakistani government, showing Bhutto sticking her head out of the sunroof of her heavily armored vehicle, waving to supporters in the moments before she was attacked.