Shot U.S. Envoy Has Brain Surgery : Embassy in Sudan Closed, Americans Told to Stay Indoors

A U.S. Embassy employee shot in the head from a car near the Libyan mission underwent brain surgery today in a Saudi Arabian hospital. The embassy was closed, and Americans were told to stay indoors.

Sources at the hospital in Jidda said that the American, who was shot Tuesday night, was in stable but critical condition after the surgery and that his right side was paralyzed.

Police said about 15,000 members of major political parties and trade unions demonstrated in Khartoum today in protest of U.S. air raids on Libya, burning two American flags and shouting “Down, down U.S.A.!” “No to America!” and “No to the dollar!” The government condemned the raids.

Riot police carrying automatic rifles kept demonstrators away from the embassy complex and the residence of Ambassador Hume A. Horan. They were posted there soon after the raids early Tuesday.

U.S. officials would not identify the injured embassy employee, citing a privacy rule.

5 Shots Fired Into Car

Khartoum police said that men in a white Toyota sedan fired five shots into the American’s car Tuesday night as he drove on a residential street near the Libyan People’s Bureau, or embassy, and that one slug lodged in his brain.

Sudanese and U.S. officials in Khartoum said investigators have found no evidence to connect Libyans with the attack, which came near the end of a day in which U.S. warplanes bombed Libyan targets and Libyan officials called for retaliation against U.S. interests.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, asked about the shooting during a satellite news conference with reporters in Europe, said there is no evidence that Libya was behind the attack. He added, however, that there have been previous threats against U.S. diplomats in Sudan.

National Public Radio reported in Washington that, according to Administration sources, the attack is presumed to be a Libyan operation because of intelligence reports indicating that Libya was planning action against U.S. officials in Sudan.

About 200 demonstrators marched in Khartoum on Tuesday, hours before the American was shot, chanting slogans against the United States. The state radio urged restraint and said individual Americans should not be blamed for their government’s actions.

Flown to Jidda in Jet

Gen. Ibrahim Ahmed Abdul-Karim, police chief of Khartoum, said a U.S. Air Force jet flew the victim to Jidda, on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, for surgery at the King Fahd military hospital.

One hospital source said, “The bullet pierced the brain and exposed part of it, leaving his right side paralyzed.”

A U.S. diplomat in Khartoum, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the embassy had told the approximately 300 personnel and their families to stay off the streets after dusk. U.S. sources said about 3,000 Americans work for private companies and non-government relief agencies in Sudan.

The diplomat said the demonstration against the U.S. air raids on Tripoli and Benghazi was one reason the embassy closed today. He said no decision has been made on whether to reopen it Thursday.

Sudan was Libya’s enemy under President Jaafar Numeiri but has drawn closer to Libya since the military overthrew Numeiri last April.