Karachi gunman had 'duty to kill'
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A doctor talks to a passerby injured in a shooting outside the U.S. Consulate.
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KARACHI, Pakistan -- A man arrested after a shooting attack killed two police officers outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on Friday had a note in his pocket outlining his religious duty to kill the "protectors of infidels."
Deputy superintendent of police Gul Hammid Sammo told the Associated Press the man also had a sketched map of the consulate compound's external security arrangements.
"I am going to kill the police officers who are protecting the infidels," the letter said according to Sammo. "This is my religious obligation."
The suspect has been identified as Pakistani Zulfigar Ali, 30. When arrested he screamed at police, urging them to kill him, Sammo said.
Six others, including one civilian, were injured in the attack. No Americans and none of the staff inside the compound at the time of the shooting were injured.
Ali told police that he acted alone in the raid but authorities expect the involvement of other gunmen.
During the attack, fire was concentrated on the consulate's security checkpoints, the head of the Interior Ministry's crisis management center, Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Friday.
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The U.S. Consulate has been the target of several recent attacks.
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He said the suspect, since identified as Ali, was riding on a motorbike when he opened fire on the consulate's exterior wall, targeting two security posts at the corners of the compound.
Paramilitary troops who arrested him found he was carrying two pistols and several rounds of ammunition, Cheema said.
The U.S. Consulate in the city was temporarily closed last year following a June 14 bomb attack just outside its grounds that killed 12 Pakistanis and seriously wounded more than a dozen others.
In response to that attack and a series of other terrorist-related violence, the consulate was relocated into another building in the same compound.
Security has been tightened at U.S. diplomatic missions around the world amid escalating tensions over a possible war with Iraq and intelligence alerts from Washington warning of terrorist attacks.
