US diplomat gunned down outside his Jordan home

AN assassin pumped eight shots into an American diplomat outside his Amman home yesterday in the first known killing of a Western envoy in the Jordanian capital.

Laurence Foley was on his way to work with the US Agency for International Development mission in Jordan, which handles foreign aid and humanitarian programmes, when he was gunned down.

While Jordan is a Washington ally, anti-American sentiment has been rising with public opposition to a threatened US attack on Iraq, Jordan's eastern neighbour and primary trading partner.