By MUNIR AHMED

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistan’s government asserted Friday that al-Qaida was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and offered the transcript from a phone tap as proof. Hundreds of thousands mobbed her funeral as the army tried to quell rioting across the nation that left 27 dead.

President Pervez Musharraf’s government also said Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as originally claimed. Instead, it said her skull was shattered by the force of a suicide bomb blast that slammed her against a lever in her car’s sunroof.

The new explanations were part of a rapidly evolving political crisis triggered by the death of Bhutto, Musharraf’s most powerful foe in the elections. The rioting by Bhutto’s furious supporters raised concerns that this nuclear-armed nation, plagued by chaos and the growing threat from Islamic militants even before the killing, was in danger of spinning out of control….

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