GraceAbounds

U.S. official shot dead in Sudan

Embassy: 'Too early to tell' if terror related; driver also killed

NBC, MSNBC and news services
updated 10:00 a.m. MT, Tues., Jan. 1, 2008



KHARTOUM, Sudan - A 33-year-old U.S. diplomat and his driver were shot to death Tuesday in an attack a day a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region, the U.S. Embassy said.


NBC has learned that the slain diplomat was John Granville, from South Buffalo, N.Y. He worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on a program to bring radios to the population of South Sudan, according to USAID's Web site.


In a statement, Granville's family said that "John was part of a team trying to negotiate peace in the Sudan.


"John's life was a celebration of love, hope and peace," the family added. "He will be missed by many people throughout the world whose lives were touched and made better because of his care."


It was unclear whether the early morning attack was targeted, or a random crime. "This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.


Braunohler said it was "too early to tell" if the attack was al-Qaida or terror related.


Earlier, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the American was shot five times in the hand, shoulder and belly and underwent surgery.


The ministry identified the Sudanese driver who was killed as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the attack occurred around 4 a.m. as the car
was heading to a western suburb of Sudan's capital, Khartoum.


Crime is fairly high in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, although much lower than in other east African cities like Nairobi, Kenya.

Sudan: 'no political' ties
The Sudanese state news agency SUNA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the incident was "isolated and has no political or ideological connotations" and pledged to bring the culprits to justice.


On Monday, a joint peacekeeping force took over in Darfur — a long-awaited change that is intended to be the strongest effort yet to solve the world's worst humanitarian crisis but which already is struggling. Also Monday, President Bush signed legislation to allow states and local governments to cut investment ties with Sudan because of the bloodshed in Darfur.


Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri have called in the past for "jihad," or holy war, in Sudan if U.N. peacekeepers deploy in Darfur — most recently in a September video by al-Zawahri. Bin Laden was based in Sudan until the late 1990s when the government expelled him, but there has been little sign of activity by the terror network in the country recently.


Last year, a group calling itself al-Qaida's branch in Sudan claimed responsibility for the slaying of a Sudanese newspaper editor accused of blasphemy for articles run in his Al-Wifaq newspaper. It was the first time a group in Sudan claimed allegiance to al-Qaida, but Sudanese officials have said the claim was fake and the slaying was not al-Qaida-linked.

Anti-Western sentiment fostered
At the same time, the Sudanese government often drums up anti-Western sentiment in the state media, often accusing the West of seeking to re-colonize Sudan using Darfur as a pretext.


In November, a small protest was held after a British teacher at a Khartoum private school was arrested for allegedly insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad — she was sentenced to prison but quickly deported.


A U.S. diplomat was killed in 2002 in the Jordanian capital Amman. The assassination was blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants.


In 1972, Cleo Noel, the U.S. ambassador to Sudan, was assassinated at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum by Yasser Arafat's Black September group. Also killed was a senior embassy officer.

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