US aid worker shot dead in Peshawar

Peshawar: A US development worker and his driver were shot dead yesterday in northwest Pakistan, where a wave of violence has been blamed on militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaida.

They were ambushed in the provincial capital of Peshawar, in an area close to where a senior US diplomat in Pakistan, a close ally of Washington in the US-led "war on terror", escaped an assassination attempt in August.

"I can confirm that an American citizen and his Pakistani driver were killed in the attack," US embassy spokesman Wes Robertson told AFP.

"The attack is currently under investigation and we are coordinating with the local authorities," he said.

Officials said the American worked with FDP, a programme funded by the United States to help develop the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border where militants have been flourishing.

"He was heading towards his office in the University Town area," when the ambush happened, said an FDP official who asked not to be named.

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.

The city, capital of North West Frontier Province, is witnessing a surge in violence blamed on Taliban militants, as Pakistani troops have launched operations against guerrilla fighters in the frontier region.

US forces have also launched airstrikes in the region aimed at top militants which have caused friction with the new Pakistan government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded Pervez Musharraf earlier this year.

Musharraf turned Pakistan into a loyal US ally after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, when US forces invaded neighbouring Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.

Many militants then fled to the rugged area on the Pakistan side of the border, much of which is effectively out of the control of the government and in the hands of Islamist fighters linked to the Taliban and Al Qaida.

The Pakistan military's crackdown on the guerrillas - forces moved into the tribal Bajaur region in August - is unpopular with many in the region. Officials say the military campaign has left more than 1,500 people dead.

Four more militants were killed as troops "heavily pounded" suspected militant hideouts in the towns of Charmang and Mamoon towns in Bajaur district on Tuesday and yesterday, local administration official Mohammad Jamil told AFP.

Militant attacks in Pakistan, the world's second-largest Muslim nation after Indonesia and the only one with the atomic bomb, are frequent.

A spate of US missile strikes on militant targets in the northwest and a Pakistan military offensive have also raised tensions in this conservative, Muslim nation.

Major offensive

In August, Lynne Tracy, the top US diplomat in northwestern Pakistan, narrowly survived a gun attack on her armoured vehicle in University Town.

Kidnappers are also currently holding the Afghan ambassador-designate, a Chinese engineer and a Polish surveyor. All were seized in the northwest.

In September, a massive suicide truck bomb devastated the Marriott Hotel in the capital, Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, including three Americans and the Czech ambassador.

The army is involved in a major offensive in the border region that has killed some 1,500 alleged militants since it began in August.

The United States is also targeting Al Qaida with missiles fired from unmanned drones launched from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile a home-made bomb exploded outside a doctor's clinic in Chichawatni town in central Punjab province, but did not cause any casualties, local police chief Sadiq Chandio said.