Islamic extremism growing in Sudan capital

Links to Al Qaeda difficult to prove

John Granville, 33, a USAID official, was shot to death with his Sudanese driver on Jan. 1.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - The young assassins prowled Khartoum's streets for hours on New Year's Eve, looking for Westerners coming home from parties.

They stopped a Land Cruiser but released it after seeing two children in the back seat. Another foreigner was let go because he was the "wrong" nationality, said Khartoum state Governor Abdul Halim Mutaafi. "They wanted Americans or British," he said.

The killing of John Granville, 33, a USAID official and former Peace Corps volunteer, in January was the first of a foreigner in Khartoum since the 1970s. It was the latest troubling sign that one of Africa's safest capitals faces a growing threat from home-grown Islamic extremists, part of a conservative sect that has doubled in size here in the past decade.

In August, Sudanese police broke up a suspected bomb plot involving young men who planned to attack the British and US embassies. Instead, they accidentally blew up their own apartment, Sudanese and Western officials said.

In February, graffiti began appearing in several Khartoum neighborhoods with slogans asserting to be from "Al Qaeda Organization of Sudan." Although clear links to Al Qaeda have been difficult to prove, some officials fear the terrorist network and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who were ejected from Sudan in 1996, are trying to reestablish a base.

Most alarming to Sudanese officials is that this new generation of extremists appears to be almost as hostile toward the Arab-dominated Sudanese government as it is to the West, despite Khartoum's efforts to bolster its Islamic credentials. In a high-profile case last year, the government prosecuted a British grade-school teacher who allowed her students to name a class teddy bear after the Prophet Mohammed.

Sudanese police have arrested more than 40 people during the past six months, including those believed to be responsible for Granville's killing, Mutaafi said. Many are students or recent university graduates.

"These are young people with very strong religious feelings and very strong feelings against the West," said Ali Sadiq, spokesman for Sudan's Foreign Ministry.

Police suspect that the cell behind Granville's assassination might have plotted the foiled embassy bombings, and they believe they have broken up the ring, Mutaafi said. Upon interrogation, the suspects admitted they also planned to target government facilities in Sudan, officials said.

American officials in Khartoum are expressing growing concern. In March, the US Embassy issued a public warning, its second in a year, disclosing that, "The US government has received indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Sudan." The consulate advised Americans to avoid travel to the country and said it had beefed up security measures.

After the New Year's attack and the 2006 beheading of an outspoken Sudanese newspaper editor, two previously unknown groups, one asserting affiliation with Al Qaeda, took responsibility for the killings in messages published on Islamist websites. The assertions could not be verified, and Sudanese officials questioned their veracity.