At least 22 dead, more than 120 injured after rioters storm US consulate, UN offices in Pakistan

At least 22 are dead and over 120 injured after pro-Iran rioters stormed the U.S. consulate and the United Nations' offices in Pakistan.

The violent clashes between rioters and security forces came after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes Saturday on Iran, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Associated Press. 

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his “profound sorrow over the martyrdom” of Khamenei, conveying his condolences to Iran, according to his office.

“Pakistan stands with the Iranian nation in this moment of grief and shares in their loss,” Zardari said.

A police surgeon at the city’s main government hospital, Summaiya Syed Tariq, confirmed six dead and multiple injured people were brought to the facility. She said the death toll increased to 10 after four critically wounded people died.

Another 12 people were killed and more than 80 wounded in clashes with police in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region when thousands of rioters attacked the offices of the U.N. Military Observer Group and the U.N. Development Programme, according to local police official Asghar Ali.

A government spokesman, Shabir Mir, said all staff working for those organizations were safe, and that protesters repeatedly clashed with police at various places in the region, damaged the offices of a local charity, and set fire to police offices. He added that authorities had deployed troops and brought the situation under control.

In Karachi, senior police official Irfan Baloch said that protesters briefly attacked the perimeter of the U.S. Consulate, but the riot was later broken up.

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi appealed for calm amidst the clashes.

“Following the martyrdom of Ayatollah Khamenei, every citizen of Pakistan shares in the grief of the people of Iran,” Naqvi said in a statement, urging people not to take the law into their own hands and to express their protests peacefully. The provincial government of Sindh also told citizens to peacefully express their views and warned against engaging in violence.

Police fired tear gas and swung batons in Islamabad as hundreds of protesters tried to march toward the U.S. Embassy. The clashes occurred outside the city’s diplomatic enclave, where the embassy is, and additional police were deployed.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, authorities used tear gas and batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators attempting to approach the U.S. Consulate to hold a rally and to denounce the killing of Khamenei, police said.

Protesters also repeatedly clashed with police near the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, according to authorities. Police said that the government has stepped up security around the U.S. Embassy in the city and consulates across Pakistan to avoid any further violence.