American Diplomat Gunned Down in Sudan

(Khartoum, Sudan) A 33-year-old U.S. diplomat with the Agency for International Development, John Granville, was killed when gunmen pulled up next to his car and fired 17 shots.

Mr. Granville's driver, a Sudanese employee of the American Embassy, was killed instantly, and Mr. Granville was shot in the neck and chest. He was taken to the hospital and died several hours later.

The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the driver as Abdel Rahman Abbas, 40.

A Sudanese government official said that the attack appeared well planned. The assailants' car sped in front of the diplomat's car, cutting it off. Two gunmen got out of their car, with one of them shooting Mr. Granville and the other shooting the driver, the official said.

Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Khartoum, said he could not comment on the circumstances because the shooting was under investigation.

According to Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq, the incident has nothing to do with terrorism.

Therefore, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it's an isolated incident which happens from time-to-time and should be handled on a case-by-case basis. However, a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum expresses doubt, indicating that it's "too early to tell" whether the murders were an act of terrorism.

In a country where gun crimes are rare, an ambush of a foreign diplomat with a 17-shot volley sure doesn't seem to be a hunting accident.


[Update 01/04/08]

From CNN:

A group calling itself the Partisans of Monotheism in Sudan claimed responsibility Friday for the shooting death of an American diplomat and his driver early New Year's Day.

"The soldiers of monotheism carried out their operation in killing the U.S. diplomat John Micahel Granville and his Sudanese driver, who sold his faith for nothing in this earthly life, ... in Riyadh neighborhood east of Khartoum," the group said in a statement posted in Arabic and English on several Islamist Web sites. The group misspelled Granville's middle name, which is Michael.

The Web sites reported the group, also called Ansar Al-Tawhid, is new.

Heh.