Protests break out in Pakistan, Iraq over Khamenei's death; 9 die in Karachi

KARACHI, Pakistan, March 1 (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Sunday clashed with protesters who breached the outer wall of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, leaving nine people dead, 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.

Pakistan and then Iraq have the largest Shi'ite Muslim populations after Iran.

In Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, protesters had been pushed back from the consulate, a spokesman for the local government said, after they set a vehicle ablaze outside the main gate and clashed with police.

At least nine people were killed in those clashes, police said.

Reuters reporters heard sounds of gunfire and saw teargas being fired in streets around the compound. Video footage showed a fire beneath a nearby bridge.

No casualties were reported in the street clashes.

The U.S. Consulate in Karachi and the U.S. Embassy Islamabad Press Office did not respond to requests for comment.

Large protests also occurred in other parts of Pakistan.

Protesters set fire to a United Nations office building in the northern city of Skardu, in the normally peaceful Shi'ite-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.

Earlier in the day in the central city of Lahore, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the U.S. consulate. There were some small-scale clashes with police but no reports of violence.

"Some of the protesters tried to damage the security gate, hundreds of yards away from the Consulate. However, police stopped them without use of force," Aqeel Raza, an eyewitness, told Reuters.

In the capital Islamabad, all roads leading to the red zone, which houses diplomatic missions and parliament, were blocked for traffic or any other public movement, police said.

(Reporting by Akhtar Soomro and Ariba Shahid in Karachi, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar, Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Writing by Saad Sayeed; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Christopher Cushing)