US agents probe Sudan attack claim
January 5, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — U.S. security agents are investigating reports that a previously unknown militant group was behind the killing of a U.S. aid officer and his Sudanese driver in Khartoum, an embassy official said on Saturday.
Granville’s driver Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, was also killed in the attack, rare in a capital considered one of the safest in Africa.
On Friday, an Islamist Web site posted a message from a group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid in Sudan (Companions of Monotheism), claiming responsibility for the killings.
Walter Braunohler, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Sudan, said FBI agents working with Sudanese authorities in Khartoum were aware of the claim.
“Everything is being looked into. What we are really interested in are facts,” he told Reuters.
Washington’s relations with Khartoum have been tense, in large part due to the ongoing ethnic and political conflict in Darfur in Sudan’s west, which U.S. President George W. Bush has labelled genocide. The Sudanese government rejects that charge.
Tuesday’s attack prompted the U.S. embassy to urge its citizens in Sudan to “exercise heightened security awareness”.
The U.S. government had said in August it had information “an extremist group” might target U.S. government interests in Sudan. Around that time, Sudanese security services said they had uncovered a plot to bomb Western embassies in the capital.
Granville’s killing was the first of a U.S. official in Sudan since 1973, when Palestinian gunmen in Khartoum took hostage and later killed the U.S. ambassador, his deputy and the Belgian charge d’affairs, who had been attending a party at the Saudi embassy.
KILLING A ‘HUGE SHOCK’
Sudanese officials have said the attack was an isolated incident. A spokesman from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said officials would be meeting on Saturday to discuss Ansar al-Tawhid’s claim of responsibility.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the claim, which was posted on a Web site commonly used by Islamist groups including al Qaeda leaders.
The wording did not appear in the “statements and news” section of the site usually used for the publication of Islamist claims, statements and videos.
Instead, it appeared in a password-protected comments section, accessible to registered members of the Web site.
Braunohler said agents from the FBI and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security had been arriving in Khartoum over the past few days to investigate the attack.
“They are here to assist and support the embassy,” he said. “The embassy is working with the Sudanese authorities. It is hoped that they will have some answer soon.”
Diplomats in Khartoum speaking on condition of anonymity said it was still unclear what motivated the shooting. “It was a huge shock,” said one. “No one expects this sort of thing to happen in Khartoum.”
Britain shut down the consular service in its Khartoum embassy after the shooting on Wednesday and Thursday and urged its citizens to be vigilant while travelling around the city.
“We are taking the incident very seriously,” a British embassy spokesman said. “Diplomats are keeping a low profile at the moment. We really don’t know what was behind the attack. It is too early.” He said the embassy was hoping to reopen its consular service to the public on Sunday.
Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office says there was a “high threat” from terrorism in Sudan. “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers,” its Web site said.
(Reuters)