American doctor shot in apparent ISIS attack

An American teacher at a medical college in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and most populous city, was shot and critically injured today in an attack that appears to be the work of Islamic State.

Four unidentified gunmen attacked Debra Lobo, a physician and vice principal at the Jinnah Medical and Dental College, on a road as she left the college today, according to police. She was shot twice in the head, according to one report, and rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Lobo is married and the mother of two teenaged daughters.

“Many friends came to support the family,” said a Pakistani pastor who is not named for security reasons. He told me he was able to be inside the emergency room and to pray for her.

Senior police official Pir Mohammad Shah told Agence France-Press (AFP) leaflets in English and Urdu were found at the scene of the shooting, carrying messages that the attack was carried out by the “Lions of Daulah al-Islamiyyah,” an Arabic name for Islamic State, or ISIS, the militant group that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq.

The leaflets, seen by reporters there, contained only plain text, with no ISIS emblems or insignia, but vowed more attacks on Americans, according to AFP: “We shall lie in wait until we ambush you and kill you wherever you may be until we confine and besiege you in America and then God willing, WE WILL BURN AMERICA!!!”

Earlier today near the medical college in Karachi, a police officer was gunned down in his car. He was rushed to Jinnah hospital but died of his injuries.

Karachi has been increasingly terrorized by al-Qaeda-linked militants and other Sunni groups, with rampant kidnappings and shootings escalating since 2008. No previous attacks in the city have been tied directly to Islamic State. A security crackdown in recent months had lessened bloodshed, but thousands of the city’s 18 million residents and many businesses already had fled the area, the industrial and economic heart of Pakistan.