Granville was killed last week. The Sudanese said it was a traffic dispute. There seems to be more to the story. “Slaying of diplomat from Buffalo linked to Islamic militants: However, message posted on Web site chat room hasn’t been authenticated,” from the Buffalo News (thanks to Twostellas):
CAIRO, Egypt “” A message attributing the slaying of a U.S. diplomat from Buffalo to a previously unknown militant group has been posted in the chat room of a Web site used by militants, a group that monitors such sites said Friday.
The SITE Intelligence Group said it could not authenticate the claim, purportedly from a group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid, or Companions of Monotheism.
Ansar al-Tawhid says in the message that it seeks to defend Islam against “infidels,” according to SITE”s translation.
John Granville, who grew up in South Buffalo, was an official for the U.S. Agency for International Development working in Sudan and was being driven home about 4 a.m. Tuesday in Khartoum when his car was cut off by another vehicle and came under fire, according to the Sudanese Interior Ministry.
He was hit by five bullets and died after surgery. His driver, Abdel-Rahman Abbas, was also killed.
The statement was posted in the discussion forum of a Web site commonly used by militants, not as an official statement on the site.
“Because there is a claim of responsibility, we chose to send it out to our subscribers,” SITE Institute director Rita Katz told the Associated Press.
Sudanese officials insist the shooting was not a terrorist attack, but the U.S. Embassy said it was too soon to determine the motive.