Rest in peace, whomever you are. I can only imagine that this guy that was killed, was operating under amazing pressure and danger. –Head Jundi
—————————————————————–
American shot dead in Pakistan’s frontier Peshawar
Wed Nov 12, 2008
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Gunmen killed a U.S. aid official on Wednesday outside his home in Peshawar, police said, the frontier Pakistani city near Afghanistan which has borne the brunt of a growing Islamist insurgency.
Spiralling violence has raised fears of instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan, whose support is seen as vital to the defeat of al Qaeda globally and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Peshawar is the last city on the road to the Khyber Pass, the main land route to Afghanistan, close to the rugged semi-autonomous tribal region where al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have taken root.
The U.S. aid official and his Pakistani driver were shot dead in a Peshawar neighbourhood favoured by diplomats and foreign aid workers close to the American Club.
“As he was coming out of his home, the attackers opened fire on him and killed him along with his driver,” said a senior police officer, who requested anonymity. “He was working for U.S. aid projects for tribal areas.”
U.S. missile strikes in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan have fuelled growing anti-American sentiment.
During the 1980s, Peshawar became a den of spies when the United States and Saudi Arabia covertly funded the mujahideen guerrilla war to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan.
In late August, three members of the U.S. consulate in Peshawar escaped unhurt after gunmen ambushed their vehicle.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad confirmed that an American had been killed on Wednesday but withheld his name.
“An American citizen and his Pakistani driver were killed in an attack in Peshawar,” acting embassy spokesman Wesley Robertson said. “The attack is currently under investigation and we are coordinating with the local authorities.”
Robertson said the dead American was not a diplomat but was serving in Pakistan in a “private capacity”.
SUICIDE CAR BOMB
Just hours after the shooting, a suicide car-bomber killed three Pakistani soldiers and wounded four in an attack on a military camp in the northwestern town of Shabqadar, 35 km (20 miles) north of Peshawar and close to the Mohmand tribal region.
On Tuesday evening, a suicide bomber killed three people outside a sports stadium in Peshawar.
Pakistani security forces have been battling Islamist guerrillas for months in the tribal region of Bajaur and the northwestern valley of Swat, where eight militants and a soldier were killed in fighting on Wednesday, a military official said.
There are expectations that Pakistan will launch an offensive soon in Mohmand, the tribal region between Bajaur and Peshawar.
Peshawar residents were frightened earlier this year when Taliban fighters became bold enough to drive into the city in daylight to threaten video shop owners and barbers, targeted because of the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islam.
Security forces subsequently launched punitive operations in adjoining tribal areas targeting gangs said to have been using Islamist zeal as a cover for criminal activities.
Three Americans were among the 55 people killed in a truck bombing that destroyed the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Sept. 20. Diplomat David Foy was killed by a suicide car bomber in the southern city of Karachi in 2006. (Additional reporting by Alamgir Bitani and Zeeshan Haider; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Paul Tait)