KARACHI, Pakistan, March 1 (Reuters) – Pakistani police fired tear gas on Sunday to scatter protesters who breached the outer wall of the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Karachi following news of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pro-Iranian protesters also gathered outside the Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, where the U.S. Embassy is located.
In Karachi, protesters had been pushed back from the consulate, a spokesman for the local government said. A Reuters reporter heard sounds of gunfire and video footage from the scenes showed burning vehicles outside the consulate’s main gate.
No casualties were reported in the clashes. U.S. diplomats in the consulate were not immediately available for comment.
Large protests also broke out in other parts of Pakistan.
Protesters set fire to a United Nations office building in Pakistan’s northern city of Skardu, in the normally peaceful Shia-majority Gilgit Baltistan region known for its Himalayan peaks popular with tourists.
“A large number of protesters have gathered outside the UN office in GB and burned down the building,” local government spokesperson Shabbir Mir told Reuters, adding no casualties had been reported.
Crowds had gathered earlier in the day to protest Khamenei’s death.
In the central city of Lahore, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate but there were no reports of violence.
“Some of the protestors tried to damage the security gate, hundreds of yards away for the Consulate, however, police stopped them without use of force,” Aqeel Raza, an eyewitness, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Akhtar Soomro and Ariba Shahid in Karachi, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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