The Karachi consulate attacks are a string of attacks against and plots to attack against the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan during the War on Terrorism.
The consulate is a tempting target for Islamic fundamentalists, because it occupies a slightly vulnerable position in downtown Karachi, next to the Marriott Hotel and accessible from two sides by roads. As Pakistan has a large devout Muslim population, there are also many supporters of these Islamic organisations, which include many members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda ousted from Afghanistan in 2002. Because Karachi is on the Southern coast of Pakistan, security is believed to be less strict than it is in Northern cities like Islamabad, and so targets there are considered more vulnerable than elsewhere by terrorists.
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“Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. Once and again one of those great influences which we call a Cause arises in the midst of a nation. Men of strenuous minds and high ideals come forward.... The attacks they sustain are more cruel than the collision of arms.... Friends desert and despise them.... They stand alone and oftentimes are made bitter by their isolation.... They are doing nothing less than defy public opinion, and shall they convert it by blows. Yes.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)