Police question witnesses in hunt for assassin

Witnesses saw a man with his face covered outside the home of a US diplomat at about the time he was shot dead, Jordanian officials said today as they probed a claim of responsibility for the assassination.

A group calling itself Shurafaa’ al-Urdun, or The Honourable of Jordan, said it killed Laurence Foley as he left for work yesterday at the US aid agency office in the capital Amman.

A statement sent by the group to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Foley was killed to protest against US support for Israel and the “bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

The group was unknown until last year when it claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli businessman near where Foley died. However, Jordanian security officials discounted both claims.

The Jordanians believe the Israeli was killed for criminal and not political reasons, and say intelligence information gathered since then cast doubt on whether the group even exists.

Police questioned builders at a site across the road from Foley’s villa and other witnesses in the affluent Amman neighbourhood.

Some reported seeing a man with a covering over his face in the area at the time of the shooting, the security officials said.

Foley, a 60-year-old administrator at the US Agency for International Development, was walking to his car when a single gunman opened fire, police said. The gunman – and likely accomplices – escaped.

US Ambassador Edward Gnehm condemned the shooting as a “cowardly, criminal act”. Foley had been working on projects to deliver clean drinking water and health care to poor Jordanians and provide loans to small businesses.

Gnehm said there had been no threats or warnings.

US officials say they are working with Jordanian investigators, and have not ruled out terrorism.

The US embassy in Amman was closed for all but emergency business today as diplomats made arrangements to send Foley’s body to the United States.

An embassy statement warned Americans to “exercise caution, be aware of their surroundings and vary travel routes and times”.

The killing of a US official shocked Jordan’s pro-Western government, which has maintained close ties to Washington despite rising public anger over US support for Israel and preparations for war against neighbouring Iraq.

More than half of Jordan’s five million people are of Palestinian origin, some with close ties to Palestinian extremist groups. Jordan and Iraq maintain close commercial links, with Jordan exporting food, medicines and clothing in exchange for discounted oil.

The information minister, Mohammed Affash Adwan, promised to “deal seriously with this horrible crime,” which he called “an aggression on Jordan and its national security”.

He said the attackers would not succeed in driving a wedge between Jordan and the United States, which is one of Jordan’s main suppliers of development and military aid.

“This incident if anything will make us more cooperative with the United States and the fight against terrorism,” he said.