US diplomat shot dead in Jordan

Unidentified gunmen killed an American diplomat today as he left for work in the Jordanian capital Amman, officials said.

Laurence Foley handled US overseas aid matters. The attack took place outside his home at about 7:30am (5:30am Irish time).

“Gunmen sprayed the diplomat with several shots, killing him instantly,” Information Minister Mohammed Affash Adwan said.

Adwan declined to speculate on whether the attack was a terrorist incident. But, he said: “This attack, regardless of its motives and reasons, is an aggression on Jordan and its national security.

“We will not tolerate that at all.”

The security officials said Foley’s wife called police after the attack outside his house on Abdullah Ghosheh street, an affluent district of Amman.

Foley, an official of the US Agency for International Development, was apparently shot as he walked to his car, a red Mercedes 300, parked in front of the two storey, white stone house.

There were blood stains on the ground near the driver’s side door, but no broken glass, indicating that he had not climbed into the car.

Police swarmed the scene, searching for fingerprints and other evidence.

Jordan is known for tight security, but several attacks have been directed against Israelis in Amman and along the Jordanian-Israel border. Jordan and Egypt are the two Arab states to have peace treaties with Israel.

The murder comes at a tense time in the Middle East, with many in the Arab world angry with the US for its push for a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and for what Arabs regard as biased US support for Israel at the expense of the Palestinians.

On September 27, the US government said it received uncorroborated information indicating that, as of this summer, a member of the al-Qaida organisation was considering a plan to kidnap US citizens in Jordan.

US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said the government had no information to determine the threat’s credibility or any indication of the timing. But he added that the US embassy in Jordan notified Americans resident in the Arab kingdom about the report should the threat be genuine.

Jordan’s alliance with the United States and the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1994 have made the kingdom a target for Muslim militants.

Two years ago, a group of 28 Arab men plotted to use poison gas and explosives in attacks against Americans and Israelis in hotels and tourist sites during New Year celebrations in Jordan. The plot was uncovered and foiled in November 1999.

There were also reports that al-Qaida had planned to go after King Abdullah II and his family as they took their holidays on a yacht in the Mediterranean.

Jordanian security evacuated the royal family after they were tipped off that a motorboat with explosives was to slam into the yacht in a plan similar to the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, in which 17 US sailors were killed.