Gunmen opened fire on the armored car of a senior US diplomat in the northwestern city of Peshawar yesterday, but she escaped unhurt, police and US officials said.
Lynne Tracy, who has been the principal officer for the consulate in Peshawar since 2006, was 100m from her house when two men with AK-47s jumped out of their dark blue Land Cruiser and sprayed her car with dozens of rounds of ammunition.
Her driver reversed the vehicle and peeled back to her home, said Arshad Khan, the local police chief and senior investigator in case.
The diplomat’s car hit an auto rickshaw as it was reversing, Khan said, adding the rickshaw driver was hospitalized with minor injuries.
The attackers fled the scene, Khan said.
The US consulate issued a brief statement saying: “There was a security incident in Peshawar this morning involving a US consulate vehicle and three employees.
“There were no injuries and minimal damage to the vehicle. We are coordinating with Pakistani authorities investigating the incident,” it said.
An official who requested anonymity said Tracy was accompanied by her driver and a security officer.
Tracy is a top official at the US consulate in Peshawar, the capital of troubled North West Frontier Province, which has been plagued by militant violence.
The brazen attack just after 8am came hours after the collapse of the ruling coalition that drove former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf from office one week ago, throwing more power to Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former leader Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the incident in a statement and said “steps for enhanced security” had been taken.
“The government is committed to ensuring all possible measures for the security of the diplomatic community,” it said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border, has a population of more than 2.5 million people in addition to about 1.7 million Afghan refugees uprooted during the 1979 to 1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
It is witnessing a surge in violence blamed on Taliban militants, as Pakistani troops have launched operations against Islamic militants in the Swat valley and Taliban hideouts in the bordering tribal belt.
Talat Masood, a political and military analyst, said US and other diplomats seen as allies in the war on terrorism could increasingly be the targets of militant attacks, especially in the next few weeks.
“I think they have to be very careful” he said, especially as the army intensifies its campaign in tribal regions. “They should take a low profile, their movements should be restricted during this period.’’
However, Masood said Western allies should not scale back their presence because that would only embolden al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants.
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