HONG KONG The Pakistani city of Peshawar, dusty, chaotic and venal, has long been a sanctuary for Taliban and Qaeda fighters in need of a break from the fighting in the adjoining tribal areas along the Afghan border. Its hard to articulate, but you go there and you can feel the danger.
The geography of the place, and its overall creepiness, are among the reasons why American diplomats are not permitted to spend long tours of duty there. They are also prohibited from fraternizing with locals. Its a hardship post, to say the least.
The need for such restrictions was fully apparent as a U.S. consulate vehicle was attacked by a suicide bomber on Monday, a brazen assault that killed two people and injured more than a dozen. Two Americans and two Pakistani employees of the consulate were among the injured, and a charred U.S. passport was found inside the vehicle.
The Peshawar consulate has at least 11 American staffers, according to State Department records, along with a number of local employees.
The deadly incident reminds us that U.S. diplomats, as well as envoys from Israel, France, Britain and other nations, often do their work under serious threat. They are in harms way, and while the dangers they face are perhaps less obvious than those confronting military troops, diplomats are nevertheless identified, targeted, kidnapped and attacked. (Likewise journalists, aid workers and civilian contractors.) Post-traumatic stress syndrome can afflict them, too.
There were 79 recorded attacks of political violence against Americans worldwide last year, not counting military incidents and combat zones, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Two of the attacks were in Pakistan and seven came in Afghanistan.
A consular vehicle was attacked in Peshawar in May 2011, killing one person and injuring a dozen, including two U.S. employees. Three months later, gunmen burst into a residence in Lahore and kidnapped an American consultant working there. Al Qaeda claimed to be holding the man. In April 2010, terrorists carried out what the State Department called a complex attack on the Peshawar consulate itself, with several Pakistani security personnel killed and wounded.
A travel and security alert about terrorist groups had been issued by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad just a month ago, saying, Threat reporting indicates these groups continue to seek opportunities to attack U.S. Mission personnel, U.S. citizens and other westerners especially at locations where they are known to congregate.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveling in Asia, assailed the attack on Monday as cowardly.
