PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Gunmen shot dead a US aid worker and his driver in an ambush in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar on Wednesday, the US embassy and police said.
The attack was the latest in a series of attacks blamed on Islamic militants from the ousted Taliban regime in Peshawar, the capital of troubled North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
"I can confirm that an American citizen and his Pakistani driver were killed in the attack," Wes Robertson, a spokesman for the US embassy, told AFP.
The two were in a car belonging to an organisation involved in a US-funded development programme in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
"The gunmen ambushed the car and shot dead a foreign national and his driver in the city's University Town neighbourhood," local police officer Abdul Qadir told AFP.
A security official in Peshawar identified the man as an official with the US-funded FDP, the federally-administrated tribal areas' development programme.
"He was heading towards his office in the University Town area where the attack happened," an FDP official told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
"The attack is currently under investigation and we are coordinating with the local authorities," the US embassy spokesman said.
The ambush took place in the same area where gunmen in August opened fire on the car of senior US diplomat, Lynne Tracy. In that attack, Tracy, a top official at the US consulate, escaped unhurt.
Wednesday's incident came a day after a suicide bomber killed four people including a policeman outside Peshawar's sports stadium.
At least 13 people were also wounded in the bombing, which took place during the closing ceremony of a sports event attended by thousands of people including senior government officials and ministers.
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 1979-1989 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 northwestern Swat valley and Taliban hideouts in the lawless tribal belt.
Pakistani forces moved into the tribal Bajaur area, a known hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, in early August. The military operation there has left more than 1500 people dead, most of them militants, officials say.
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