USAID worker, driver shot dead in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Armed men shot dead a USAID official, Stephan Wanz, along with his driver, Shakoor Rehman, on Atta Turk Line University Town near American Guest House after he left for his office on Wednesday. Sources say he was working on the FATA development program for the USAID organisation and was reportedly on his way to work when unidentified men opened fire on his car, killing both occupants immediately.‘I can confirm that an American citizen and his Pakistani driver were killed in the attack,’ Wes Robertson, a spokesman for the US embassy, told AFP.The two were in a car belonging to an organisation involved in a US-funded development programme in the tribal areas.The gunmen blocked the men's vehicle in a narrow lane with their own car, then opened fire with automatic weapons, said a Western security official in the city.'Several bullets hit them, and they died in the vehicle,' Khan said.A security official in Peshawar identified the man as an official with the US-funded FDP, the federally-administrated tribal areas’ development programme.‘He was heading towards his office in the University Town area where the attack happened,’ an FDP official told AFP.‘The attack is currently under investigation and we are coordinating with the local authorities,’ the US embassy spokesman said.The University town neighbourhood is known to be a posh area of the provincial capital and several foreigners are based here.