Iranian Diplomat Kidnapped in Pakistan Ambush

An Iranian diplomat was kidnapped and his Pakistani guard killed after a shoot-out today in Peshawar, north-west Pakistan.

Gunmen seized Hashmatullah Attar Zadeh, a commercial attaché, after they blocked his car on a narrow bridge and opened fire.

A Pakistani guard was killed in the ambush and the attackers dragged the Iranian into their vehicle before fleeing, said Banaras Khan, a police investigator.

"On hearing guns shots, I rushed out of my home and saw the body of the guard lying there," Abid Hussain, a neighbor of the diplomat, told Reuters. "By that time, Athar Zadeh had been taken away."

It is the latest in a string of attacks on foreigners in the volatile north-west region, which is used by al-Qaida and Taliban militants as a base for assaults on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, an American aid worker, Stephen Vance, was shot dead in Peshawar. He was killed as he was being driven from his home to his office in University Town, an upmarket area of Peshawar where a top US diplomat narrowly escaped a gun attack a few months ago.

Iran and Pakistan have generally had cordial relations, although Iran did not support the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the 1990s, unlike Pakistan.

It is possible the Iranian was kidnapped for a ransom, although police would not speculate.

The latest kidnapping happened in the same area where Afghanistan's ambassador-designate was taken in September and his driver killed. The Afghan diplomat is still missing, as are a Chinese engineer and a Polish surveyor who also were kidnapped in the region.