American aid worker killed

AMMAN, Jordan -- An assassin pumped eight shots into an American diplomat outside his home Monday in the first known killing of a Western envoy in the Jordanian capital.\nThe U.S. Embassy identified the victim as Laurence Foley, an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development mission in Jordan, which handles foreign aid and humanitarian programs.\nWhile Jordan is officially allied with the United States, anti-American sentiment has been rising with public opposition to a threatened U.S. attack on Iraq, Jordan's eastern neighbor and primary trading partner. The kingdom's 1994 peace treaty with Israel also has made it a target for Muslim militants and terrorist groups.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush deeply regretted the shooting. However, Fleischer, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Mexico, said it was too early to say whether the attack was terror-related.\n"The investigation is just getting under way," Fleischer said. "We don't rule that out but we won't go beyond that for the moment."\nU.S. Ambassador Edward Gnehm, his voice breaking several times, paid tribute to Foley as "a man who dedicated his life to improving the lives of others."\nGnehm had given Foley a "superior honor award" on Sunday. Gnehm quoted Foley's wife Virginia as saying on the night before he died: "I'm where I want to be doing what I want to do."\nThe ambassador called the shooting a "cowardly, criminal act" but refused to say whether he thought it was terrorist-related.\nJordanian Information Minister Mohammed Affash Adwan would not speculate on whether terrorists were involved, but called the attack "an aggression on Jordan and its national security."\nForeign Minister Marwan Muasher went to the U.S. Embassy to express condolences and promised swift action to catch the shooter.\n"The Jordanian government is going to deal seriously with this horrible crime," the Jordanian news agency Petra quoted him as saying.\nThe gunman escaped and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.\nThe U.S. Embassy said in a statement that U.S. authorities "are working closely with Jordanian officials to investigate this horrible crime." The embassy warned Americans to "remain vigilant."\nThe estimated 3,000-strong American community in Jordan generally consider Amman safe, despite occasional warnings of security threats.\nThe American Embassy in Amman, one of the largest in the Mideast, is known as "the fortress" for its high walls and sprawling structure. Anti-American demonstrations are less common and smaller than in other Arab capitals, and usually tied to protests against Israel.\nSecurity was immediately increased at other embassies and diplomatic missions. In an unusual scene for Amman, red beret-clad special forces riding jeeps mounted with machine-guns escorted diplomatic vehicles through the city.\nFoley, 60, was shot as he walked to his car at 7:30 a.m., according to a senior Jordanian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The bullets came from a 7 mm pistol, he said.\nFoley died instantly, Adwan said.While initial reports spoke of "gunmen," the official said the preliminary investigation indicated that one gunman, working with accomplices, killed Foley. Doctors who performed the autopsy recovered eight bullets from the head, chest and abdomen.\nJordanian security officials said Foley's wife called police after the attack outside his house in a middle-class district of Amman.\nNeighbors said they did not hear any gunshots, raising questions about whether a silencer was used. The Jordanian security official said only that the attack was apparently "well-organized and well-planned."\nLarge numbers of police searched the shooting scene for fingerprints and other evidence.\n"We are all sad for his killing because he and his wife were a nice couple and everybody liked them in the neighborhood," said one veiled woman, who gave her name only as Um-Ayman.\nAnother Jordanian neighbor, Um-Saeed Sbeih, said Foley and his wife would walk their dog every day and always wave and greet them in Arabic.\n"It is a hideous crime, who ever did it should be punished," she said. "Why should ordinary people get killed and punished for the crimes of their leaders? We like the American people and we were happy to have this man as a neighbor."\nFoley, a Boston native, lived in Oakland, Calif. He had two daughters and one son. Foley worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1965 before becoming a junior probation officer in California in the 1970s. He returned overseas with the Peace Corps and USAID, including postings in the Philippines, Bolivia, Peru and Zimbabwe.\nFoley's colleagues called his slaying an act of terrorism.\n"We are deeply saddened by the heinous murder of USAID officer Laurence Foley in Amman, Jordan," said John K. Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association.\n"This brutal terrorist attack underlines the vulnerability of the men and women of the U.S. foreign service who advance our nation's vital interests around the globe," Naland said in a statement.\nOn Sept. 27, the U.S. government said had received uncorroborated information indicating that, as of this summer, a member of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network was considering a plan to kidnap U.S. citizens in Jordan.\nState Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said then that the government could not determine whether the threat was credible or when it would be implemented.\nThe U.S. Embassy in Jordan notified Americans to be vigilant, and renewed that warning Monday.