US Official in stable condition after Sudan shooting

January1 , 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A U.S. official was critically wounded in a shooting attack on an embassy vehicle in Khartoum on Tuesday and his Sudanese driver was killed, a Western diplomatic source said.

“What we have heard is that a driver and a U.S. official, sometime a little after midnight, were heading home. The driver was shot and died on the spot and the U.S. official was shot and critically injured,” the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Arabiya television reported that the shooting was in a main street in the capital Khartoum. It said there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

US confirmed that an American diplomat was wounded in the shooting.

Al-Jazeera Arabic TV identified the American diplomat as 33 years old John Granville.

Walter Braunohler, a public diplomacy officer at the embassy, told CBS that the U.S. national was an officer with the State Department’s international development agency, USAID.

“The American man is now in hospital … and needs blood. He lost so much blood,” a diplomatic source said, adding that the man remained in Khartoum.

The driver’s name was Abdel-Rahman Abbas Rahma, Sudan Tribune has learned.

The government sponsored Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website quoted an unidentified official as saying that the shooting was not terror related.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified the wounded American as a humanitarian aid official and said he was shot five times in the hand, shoulder and belly. The diplomat underwent surgery and was in stable condition, according to the ministry’s statement.

(ST)

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.