KHARTOUM, Jan 1: A US diplomat shot here while riding in a car early on Tuesday died of injuries sustained in the attack, which also killed the official’s Sudanese driver, the US Embassy said.

The shooting came a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Sudan’s Darfur region. But it was not immediately known if the motive for the attack was political or a random crime.

“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 the diplomat, whose name was not released by the embassy, worked for the US Agency for International Development.

The Sudanese Interior Ministry identified the wounded American as a humanitarian aid official and said he was shot five times in the hand, shoulder and belly. The diplomat underwent surgery following the attack, according to the ministry’s statement.

The ministry identified the Sudanese driver who was killed as 40-year-old Abdel Rahman Abbas and said the attack occurred around 4am local time on Tuesday as the car was heading to a western suburb of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

Both US and Sudanese officials said they were investigating the incident but could not yet provide details on the circumstances surrounding the attack.

The Sudanese state news agency SUNA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying the incident was “isolated and has no political or ideological connotations” and pledged to bring the culprits to justice.

The Sudan Media Center, which has close links to the government, cited an unidentified government official as saying the attack was criminal in motive and that there was “no grain of suspicion of an organized terrorist action.”

But Braunohler, the US embassy press officer, said it was “too early to tell” if the attack was Al Qaeda or terror related.—AP