JORDAN - Oct. 28 - US Diplomat Killed.

Lawrence Foley, a 60-year-old administrator for the US Agency for International Development, is shot dead outside his home in Amman as he is getting into his car to leave for work at 7.30 am. (This is the first assassination of a western official in the kingdom). Petra state news agency quoted Information Minister Mohammad Adwan as saying: "This attack, regardless of its motives, is an attack on the country and its national security". He did not confirm that the attack was politically motivated. (The attack occurred hours before the trial was expected to re-open of 10 men, including one who had recently returned from Afghanistan, charged with plotting to assassinate Americans jogging in the area of Amman close to the US embassy. The US has repeatedly praised Amman's support for its war on terror, boosting aid to the kingdom this year to $450m and making it the 4th largest recipient of US aid. Washington is keen to promote Amman as the Arab model for globalisation, but many Jordanians feel alienated by growing westernisation and the crop of giant McDonalds' emblems that loom over the city. US diplomats have been cautioned in recent days against the threat of shootings and hostage-takings, and foreign schools in the city have drawn up contingency plans for evacuation in the event of war with Iraq. On Oct. 26, the Muslim Brotherhood demanded that the government end its military manoeuvres with the US, which have been on going in the kingdom's eastern desert since August). On Oct. 29, security officials detained dozens of Muslim militants for questioning but dismissed claims by a little-known group - Shurafaa Al Urdun, the Honorables of Jordan - that it was responsible for the killing of Lawrence Foley. The group sent a statement to the Arabic daily newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi in London on Oct. 28 saying that Foley was killed to condemn US support for Israel and the "bloodshed in Iraq and Afghanistan".