U.S. Diplomat Killed in The Sudan; Terror Suspected

An American diplomat was shot and killed early Tuesday by gunmen in a passing car who cut him off as he was being driven home in Sudan's capital.^[1] The diplomat's Sudanese driver was also killed in the shooting.^[2]

The US State Department has said diplomatic security and FBI agents will be sent to Sudan to investigate the murder of a US diplomat and his driver.^[3] The U.S. State Department said U.S. investigators were in the process of obtaining visas for Khartoum, Sudan.^[4] "They will... work closely with the Sudanese government to determine who is responsible for these murders and bring them to justice," spokesman Sean McCormack said.^[5]

The Sudanese government often drums up anti-Western sentiment in the media; but attacks on foreigners are rare in Khartoum, where an American diplomat was last killed in 1973.^[6]

Sudanese officials insisted it was not a terrorist attack, but the U.S. Embassy said it was too soon to determine the motive.^[7] The Sudan Media Center cited an unidentified government official as saying the attack was criminally motivated and that there was ''no grain of suspicion of an organized terrorist action.''^[8] However, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said it was ''too early to tell'' whether the attack was terror-related.^[9]

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^[1] AP Staff, U.S. diplomat's killing wasn't terrorism: Sudan, Associated Press Newswire, January 2, 2008, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] BBC Staff, US to send investigators to Sudan, BBC News, January 2, 2008, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7169040.stm (last visited January 3, 2008).
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] AP Staff, supra note 1.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.