A party aide and a military official said Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died following a suicide bombing. Bhutto's death comes just two weeks before legislative elections in which her party was expected to do well.

Link: CNN Coverage

"At 6:16 p.m. she expired," said Wasif Ali Khan, a member of Bhutto's party who was at Rawalpindi General Hospital where she was taken after the attack.

A party security adviser said Bhutto was shot in the neck and chest as she got into her vehicle, and then the gunman blew himself up.

As news of Bhutto's death spread, supporters at the hospital in Rawalpindi smashed glass doors and stoned cars. Many chanted slogans against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, accusing him of complicity in her killing.

The leader of a rival opposition party told mourners at the hospital that he would help them "take the revenge for her death."

Angry supporters also took to the streets in the northwestern city of Peshawar as well other areas.

The death of the 54-year-old Bhutto has thrown the campaign for the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections into chaos.

An official at Pakistan's Interior Ministry said shortly after Bhutto's death, Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff. They were expected to discuss whether to postpone the election.

At least 20 people are feared dead in the attack, police and witnesses said. An aide to Bhutto initially said that the former prime minister was not harmed.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw body parts and flesh scattered at the back gate of the Liaqat Bagh Park in Rawalpindi, where Bhutto had spoken. He counted about 20 bodies, including police, and could see many others wounded.

She was killed just a few miles from the scene of her father's violent death 28 years earlier. He was executed by hanging in 1979 on charges of conspiracy to murder that supporters say was politically motivated by the then-military regime. His killing led to violent protests across the country.

Bhutto served twice as Pakistan's prime minister between 1988 and 1996. She had returned to Pakistan from an eight-year exile Oct. 18. Her homecoming parade in Karachi was also targeted by a suicide attacker, killing more than 140 people. On that occasion she narrowly escaped injury.

U.S. Condemns Attack

The U.S. State Department has issued a statement condeming the attack.

"Certainly, we condemn the attack on this rally," said deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey. "It demonstrates that there are still those in Pakistan who want to subvert reconciliation and efforts to advance democracy."

For months, the United States has been encouraging Musharraf, to reach some kind of political accommodation with his opponents, particularly Bhutto.

In Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is vacationing, deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel also said the White House condemned the attack. The president is expected to make a statement later Thursday.