An American diplomat had died of injuries sustained in a shooting incident in the Sudanese capital early on Tuesday, the US embassy in Sudan said.

 

"This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Khartoum.

 

Braunohler said it was too early to speculate about motives, adding that the slain US diplomat worked for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

 

An anonymous diplomatic source said that unknown gunmen opened fire as the US diplomat was heading home in an embassy vehicle just before the sunrise on New Year's day.

 

The driver was killed instantly and the US diplomat was moved to a local hospital where he died from his wounds.

 

Five bullets were shot into various parts of the US diplomat's body, the diplomatic source noted.

 

The official SUNA news agency identified the official as 33-year-old John Granville and said he had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

 

Ali al-Sadig, the spokesman of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua that Sudanese and US security agencies were cooperating in order to find out the circumstances of the shooting incident.

 

"There is cooperation between security agencies concerned from the two countries in order to investigate the circumstances of the regrettable incident," the spokesman said.

 

He added that the cooperation would continue until the culprits are arrested.

 

In a statement, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry described the incident as "isolated", ruling out any political impact on the situation in Sudan as well as its relations with other countries.

 

The Sudanese government "is fully committed to take care of and protect the foreigners residing on Sudan's territories especially the diplomats, and will continuously do its best to provide the maximum security and peace for them," the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

 

It noted that the authorities concerned had started the investigation into the incident immediately after it took place.

 

Until now no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

This was the first time that a foreign diplomat was shot over years in Sudan, where a hatred against western countries especially the US was popular among the grass-roots.

 

The incident came only one day after US President George W. Bush signed a law called "Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007" which had been passed by the Congress on Dec. 19 last year.

 

The bill encourages but does not require US state and local governments, as well as private investors, to divest from companies that do business in Sudan, in order to sanction it over the Darfur crisis labeled as "genocide" by the US administration.

 

"I share the deep concern of the Congress over the continued violence in Darfur perpetrated by the government of Sudan and rebel groups," Bush said in a statement.

 

"My administration will continue its efforts ... through sanctions against the government of Sudan and high-level diplomatic engagement and by supporting the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur," said Bush.

 

Relations between Khartoum and Washington have been cold since late 1990s as the US administration imposed economic sanctions on the African country, accusing it of supporting Islamic terrorism.

 

Also on the eve of New Year's day, a hybrid force formed by the United Nations and the African Union (AU) took over the peacekeeping authorities in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur from the under funded AU peacekeeping force, which had been existing there since more than three years.

 

Local analysts do not expect an obvious improvement of the unstable situation in Darfur in a short term following the transfer in view of a lack of human resources and long-distance mobilization means for the hybrid force.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2008)