American Shot Dead in Pakistan's Frontier Peshawar

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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.

More at Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSISL373460._CH_.2400

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1. the first targeted killing of a westerner in the campaign of violence unleashed by Islamic extremist

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/12/usaid-killing-pakistan