UN Worker, Guard Shot Dead in NW Pakistan

In this image taken on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 local residents view a destroyed vehicle and burnt out...

In this image taken on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 local residents view a destroyed vehicle and burnt out building caused during fighting between Pakistani security forces and Taliban militants in Maidan in the Dir district of Pakistan. Pakistani troops killed 13 militants in the latest clashes in the Swat Valley, the army said. (AP Photo/Ruhullah Shakir)

(AP)

Some 16,000 people are staying at the camp where Usman worked, according to the U.N. The refugees hail mainly from Bajur, a tribal area where the military launched an offensive nearly a year ago. Security forces continue to face pockets of resistance there.

In June, a suicide attack at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar killed 11 people including some U.N. workers. Earlier this year, American U.N. employee John Solecki was kidnapped and held for around two months in Baluchistan province. His driver was shot dead.

Guebre-Christos said Thursday she wasn't aware of any direct threats toward U.N. workers at the camp.

"We don't know who these people are who attacked or why they did it," she said.

Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for Pakistan's northwest tribal regions, said Thursday's attack sounded like the work of criminals rather than the Taliban because the militants had largely been driven from that area.

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Although many criminal gangs are believed to carry out kidnappings for their own gain, others are suspected of links to the Taliban, and kidnappings are believed to be an important source of funding for the militancy.

Foreigners are seemingly appealing targets for both militants and kidnappers.

Earlier this year, Taliban militants beheaded a Polish geologist. Last year, Lynne Tracy, the top U.S. diplomat in the northwest, narrowly survived an attack on her vehicle in Peshawar by suspected militants. In November, also in Peshawar, gunmen shot and killed American aid worker Stephen Vance.

Also on Thursday, a U.N. commission investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto arrived in Pakistan for the first time since opening its inquiry. The members were meeting with senior officials.

Bhutto was killed in late 2007 as she campaigned to return her political party to power in parliamentary elections. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, took over the party and was elected president by lawmakers in September 2008.