Attack On U.S. Consulate In Pakistan

Gunmen opened fire on a police post guarding the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on Friday, killing two Pakistani policemen and injuring at least five others, police and hospital officials said.

Police caught one of the assailants and confiscated a pistol after chasing the man through a nearby park in the southern port city. The man was identified as an Afghan national, officers said.

U.S. Consul-General John Bauman said a camera mounted on the outside of the heavily fortified U.S. mission recorded the shooting, according to police who spoke to him.

"The consulate is very well protected and all the Americans were inside," Police Chief Kamal Shah told reporters outside the building.

Bauman went outside the consulate briefly to inspect the site and meet police officers.

The United States and other countries have already evacuated family members from their missions in Pakistan because of attacks on foreigners. A U.S. Embassy worker and her daughter were killed last March in an attack on a church in the Pakistani capital.

"We are very security conscious; fortunately we are getting excellent cooperation from the Pakistani security agencies," U.S. Embassy spokesman Terry White said in Islamabad, the capital.

The attack - the latest in a series of incidents in Pakistan targeting Americans and foreigners from other Western nations - comes only a few days after the first anniversary of the murder of American journalist Danny Pearl.

Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 23, 2002, and a month later was executed by his captors. A grisly videotape of his death was sent to U.S. diplomats in Karachi.

At the time of his abduction, Pearl was probing links between Pakistani Islamic extremists and Richard Reid, a British-born terrorist who had been charged with attempting to blow up an American jetliner with a bomb in his shoe. Reid has since been convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Last July, a Pakistani court convicted four Islamic militants of Pearl's murder. During the trial, his dismembered body was found by police in a shallow grave near a religious school.

While the government of Pakistan is formally allied with the U.S. in the war on terror, Pakistan is also a stronghold of Osama bin Laden and continues to be the site of numerous anti-American demonstrations, staged by bin Laden's supporters.

Security has been tight at the U.S. consulate in Karachi since a bombing outside the building last June killed 12 people, all Pakistanis. Cement barricades stop vehicles from entering the area around the building. High walls surround the consulate, and entry and exit from the building is closely guarded.

Five suspects accused of masterminding the June bombing are on trial in Karachi, charged with conspiracy, murder and terrorism. They face the death penalty if convicted.

That bombing was one of a series of attacks on foreigners and minority Christians in Pakistan since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S.-led anti-terrorism effort.

There has been public outrage over a possible war on Iraq and warnings of violence should Musharraf support the United States against Baghdad.

Both Washington and Baghdad have sent envoys to Pakistan to try to get Islamabad's support at the United Nations for a resolution that could pave the way for war with Iraq.

Pakistan's right-wing religious groups plan to hold anti-war demonstrations in Karachi on Sunday and again on March 9 in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.