4 Americans killed in Pak over Kasi's conviction

Gunmen sprayed bullets at a car carrying four Americans and a Pakistani driver through morning traffic on a downtown Karachi street today, killing all the five, police said.

The motive for the attack was unknown, but it came two days after Pakistani Mir Aimal Kasi was convicted in a US court of killing two CIA employees. Washington had warned about possible retaliation.

''It is premature to say why they were killed but there is a strong possibility that it was linked to Kasi's conviction and sentencing,'' said Karachi police chief Malik Iqbal.

The Americans were auditors for the US-based oil company Union Texas. The company's office in Karachi said it was trying to contact the victims's relatives in the United States before releasing their identities.

The four men had only recently come to Pakistan from Houston, Texas, to conduct the audit.

The company is evacuating about 30 foreigners who are working in Pakistan. It was not immediately clear when they would return.

Today's attack largely mirrored the March 1995 shooting of two US government employees, who were killed while heading to work at the US consulate in Karachi. No one has ever been arrested in those killings.

In today's attack, two gunmen in a red car roared up behind the Americans's car and opened fire, Iqbal said. They forced the car off the road and sprayed it with more than a dozen bullets.

Everyone in the car died on the spot, he said.

The Americans were en route to their office in the Beharia complex when the shooting occurred, roughly half a kilometer from a downtown hotel where they were staying.

The gunmen abandoned their car in a congested downtown district of Karachi not far from the central post office on Saudar avenue. A guard at the post office told police that two men parked the car and disappeared, Iqbal said.

Police were putting together a description of the men and have launched a massive manhunt, he said.

In warning Americans to watch out for retaliation following the Kasi verdict, the US state department on Tuesday said, ''While we have no specific threat information, American citiziens travelling abroad should pay close attention to their personal security practices overseas in light of the potential threat.''

No motive was ever established for the 1995 killing, although it occurred shortly after the arrest and deportation to the United States of Ramii Yousef, the man accused of masterminding the bombing of New York's World Trade Center.

The killing also came at a time of protracted ethnic fighting in Karachi.

Union Texas is the biggest international oil company in Pakistan, where it has been operating for more than 10 years.

Company officials, who did not want to be identified, said Union Texas puts out roughly half of all oil production in Pakistan.

The company operates almost exclusively in Pakistan's southern Sindh Province, of which Karachi is the capital.

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