American woman shot and "badly injured" in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD -- An American doctor who worked for a Pakistani medical school was shot and wounded in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday, in a case which immediately sparked fears of Islamic militants stepping up attacks on Western nationals in the country.
Though the exact motive behind the shooting was not immediately clear, a senior Karachi police officer who spoke to CBS News on condition he will not be named, said "Islamic militants are number one on our list of suspects."
He also said Dr. Debra Lobo, the victim, "was badly injured" without giving details of her condition.
Police officer Pir Muhammad Shah told the Associated Press that Lobo was shot as she drove to work. Shah said a pamphlet found in her car claims the attackers were members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A senior Pakistani government official in Islamabad, who also spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said that Lobo was shot in the face "but is expected to survive. The doctors believe she will go through a tough recovery but we hope she will recover."
When asked to comment on the shooting, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson told CBS News: "We've seen press reports (of the shooting) and are monitoring and looking in to the reports."
The police officer in Karachi who spoke to CBS News said Lobo is in her mid-50s and was attacked by four gunmen shortly after she left her office Thursday afternoon at the Jinnah Medical and Dental College on the busy Shaheed-e-Millat road.
The shooting raised questions over the security of Western nationals in the south Asian country just four months after the U.S. drew down its troops from neighboring Afghanistan, ending more than a decade-long presence in the country.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have continued to contend with al Qaeda and Taliban militants, who have sought to make territorial gains and spread their hard-line ideology. In recent months, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been surrounded by fears of Iraq-based ISIS militants seeking to make inroads in the two countries.
A senior Western diplomat based in Islamabad who spoke to CBS News after Lobo's shooting on Thursday said the militants involved in the shooting appeared to be clear in their objectives.
"Unless we find otherwise, this may well be a case of Islamic militants sending out a powerful message. They have no tolerance for anyone including us [Western nationals] in their view of the world," he said.