List of assassinated serving ambassadors

This list is incomplete; you can help by . (February 2021)

This is a list of assassinated serving ambassadors.^[1][2]

List[]

Ambassador	Post	Place	Country	Date of death	Killed by
Envoys of Xerxes I	Persian envoys to Sparta	Sparta	Sparta	481 B.C.	killed by Leonidas I
Gaius Fulcinius	Roman envoys to Fidenae	Fidenae	Rome	438 B.C.	killed on orders of Lars Tolumnius
Lucius Roscius
Spurius Antius
Tullus Cloelius
Ambassadors of Genghis Khan	Ambassadors to the Khwarezmian Empire	Otrar/Urgench	Khwarezmian Empire	1218	A Mongolian trade caravan including an ambassador was massacred by Inalchuq. Later on, a Muslim ambassador was beheaded on orders of Sultan Muhammad II
Ambassadors of Hulagu Khan	Ambassadors to the Ayyubid and Mamluk Sultanate	Mayyafariqin	Ayyubid Sultanate	1260	A Jacobite priest was crucified on the orders of Ayyubid emir Al-Kamil Muhammad[3]
		Egypt	Mamluk Sultanate		Sultan Qutuz put Hulagu's ambassador to death[4]
Ambassador of Timur	Ambassador to the Mamluk Sultanate	Damascus	Mamluk Sultanate	1400	killed on orders of Mamluk viceroy, Sudun
Antonio Rincon	French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire	Rivoli	Venice	July 3, 1541	killed by Venetian Imperial Guard
Ange-Élisabeth-Louis-Antoine Bonnier	French diplomat	Rastatt	Hungary	April 28, 1799	killed by Hungarian hussars
Thomas Edward Rowcroft	British diplomat	Lima	Peru	December 7, 1824	killed by soldiers of Simón Bolívar (alleged)
Alexander Griboyedov	Russian Ambassador to Persia	Tehran	Persia	February 11, 1829	killed by Iranian mob
Alexander Burnes	Scottish diplomat	Kabul	Durrani Empire	November 2, 1841	killed by Afghan mob
William Hay Macnaghten	British diplomat	Kabul	Durrani Empire	December 23, 1841	killed by Wazir Akbar Khan or under his orders
Walter Plowden	British diplomat	Gondar	Ethiopian Empire	March 13, 1860	killed by a follower of Agew Niguse
Augustus Raymond Margary	British diplomat	Tengyue	China	February 21, 1875	unknown
Clemens von Ketteler	German Ambassador to China	Beijing	China	June 20, 1900	killed by Boxer rebel
Grigoriy Schterbina	Russian diplomat to Turkey	Mitrovica	Ottoman Empire	April 10, 1903	killed by Albanian corporal
William Horwood Stuart	United States Vice Consul to Georgia	Batum	Russian Empire	May 20, 1906	unknown
Wilhelm von Mirbach	German Ambassador to Russia	Moscow	Russian SFSR	June 6, 1918	killed by Left Socialist Revolutionaries
Walther Rathenau	German Foreign Minister	Berlin	Weimar Republic	June 24, 1922	killed by the Organisation Consul
Vatslav Vorovsky	Soviet Representative to Italy	Lausanne	Switzerland	May 10, 1923	killed by Maurice Conradi
Rayko Daskalov	Bulgarian Minister Plenipotentiary to Czechoslovakia	Prague	Czechoslovakia	August 23, 1923	killed by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
Pyotr Voykov	Soviet Ambassador to Poland	Warsaw	Poland	June 7, 1927	killed by Boris Kowerda
Ceno bej Kryeziu	Albanian Ambassador to Czechoslovakia	Prague	Czechoslovakia	July 26, 1927	killed by Alkibijad Bebi
Ernst vom Rath	Secretary of the German Embassy to France	Paris	France	November 9, 1938	killed by Herschel Grynszpan
Henry W. Antheil Jr.	American diplomat	Gulf of Finland	Finland	June 14, 1940	airplane shot down by the Soviet Union
Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne	British Minister-Resident for the Middle East	Cairo	Egypt	November 6, 1944	killed by Lehi
Thomas C. Wasson	United States Consul General in Jerusalem	Jerusalem	Israel	May 23, 1948	unknown
Folke Bernadotte	United Nations Mediator in Palestine	Jerusalem	Israel	September 17, 1948	killed by Lehi
Henry Gurney	United Kingdom High Commissioner in Malaya	Fraser's Hill	Malaya	October 6, 1951	killed by members of the Malayan Communist Party
Kokkat Sankara Pillai	First Secretary in High Commission of India in Ottawa, Canada	Ottawa	Canada	April 19, 1961	Killed by a mentally unstable Yugoslav immigrant to Canada
John Mein	United States Ambassador to Guatemala	Guatemala City	Guatemala	August 28, 1968	killed by Rebel Armed Forces
Karl von Spreti	West German Ambassador to Guatemala	Guatemala City	Guatemala	May 4, 1970	killed by Rebel Armed Forces
Vladimir Rolović	Yugoslav Ambassador to Sweden	Stockholm	Sweden	April 15, 1971	killed by Croatian National Resistance
	Bolivian Ambassador to France	Paris	France	April 15, 1971	killed by Hugo Banzer regime[citation needed]
	Belgian Ambassador to Morocco	Skhirat	Morocco	July 10, 1971	killed by insurgents during a coup d'état attempt[5]
	Gabonese Ambassador to Japan	Libreville	Gabon	November 5, 1971	killed by African mercenaries led by Bob Denard[citation needed]
Mehmet Baydar	Turkish Consul General to the Western United States	Santa Barbara	United States	January 27, 1973	killed by Gourgen Yanikian
Bahadır Demir	Turkish Vice Consul General to the Western United States
	Belgian Chargé d'Affaires to Sudan	Khartoum	Sudan	March 2, 1973	killed by Black September
George Curtis Moore	Interim United States Chargé d'Affaires to Sudan
Cleo A. Noel, Jr.	United States Ambassador to Sudan
Rodger Davies	United States Ambassador to Cyprus	Nicosia	Cyprus	August 19, 1974	killed by EOKA B
Daniş Tunalıgil	Turkish Ambassador to Austria	Vienna	Austria	October 11, 1975	killed by Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
İsmail Erez	Turkish Ambassador to France	Paris	France	October 24, 1975	killed by Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
Christopher Ewart-Biggs	United Kingdom Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland	Dublin	Ireland	June 21, 1976	killed by Provisional Irish Republican Army
Carlos Abdala	Uruguayan Ambassador to Paraguay	Asunción	Paraguay	November 5, 1976	killed by Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood
Francis E. Meloy, Jr.	United States Ambassador to Lebanon	Beirut	Lebanon	June 16, 1976	killed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Robert O. Waring	American diplomat
Taha Carım	Turkish Ambassador to Holy See	Rome	Italy	June 9, 1977	killed by Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
Héctor Hidalgo Solá	Argentine Ambassador to Venezuela	Buenos Aires	Argentina	July 17, 1977 (disappearance)	unknown
Said Hammami	Palestinian Liberation Organization Representative to the United Kingdom	London	United Kingdom	January 4, 1978	killed by Abu Nidal Organization (alleged)
Elena Holmberg	Functionary of the Argentine Embassy to France	Tigre	Argentina	December 20, 1978 (disappearance)	killed by National Reorganization Process (alleged)
Adolph Dubs	United States Ambassador to Afghanistan	Kabul	Afghanistan	February 14, 1979	killed by Settam-e-Melli (alleged)
Richard Sykes	United Kingdom Ambassador to the Netherlands	The Hague	Netherlands	March 22, 1979	killed by Provisional Irish Republican Army
Gottfried Lessing	East German Ambassador to Uganda	Kampala	Uganda	April 11, 1979	killed by the Uganda National Liberation Front
	South African Ambassador to El Salvador	San Salvador	El Salvador	October 8, 1980	killed by Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí[citation needed]
Şarık Arıyak	Turkish General Consul to Australia	Dover Heights	Australia	December 17, 1980	killed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
	French Ambassador to Lebanon	Beirut	Lebanon	September 5, 1981	killed by pro-Iranian hitmen[citation needed]
	Iraqi Ambassador to Lebanon	Beirut	Lebanon	December 15, 1981	killed in an embassy bombing by the Islamic Dawa Party
Kemal Arıkan	Turkish Consul General to the Western United States	Los Angeles	United States	January 28, 1982	killed by Harry Sassounian and Krikor Saliba
Orhan Gündüz	Turkish Honorary Consul	Somerville	United States	May 4, 1982	killed by a gunman, claimed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
Shlomo Argov	Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom	London	United Kingdom	February 24, 2003 (shot on June 3, 1982)	killed by Abu Nidal Organization
Erkut Akbay	Turkish Administrative Attaché to Portugal	Lisbon	Portugal	June 7, 1982	killed by a gunman, claimed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
Galip Balkar	Turkish Ambassador to Yugoslavia	Belgrade	Yugoslavia	March 9, 1983	killed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
Dursun Aksoy	Turkish Administrative Attaché to Belgium	Brussels	Belgium	July 14, 1983	killed by a gunman, claimed by both the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia and the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide
Lee Gye-cheol	South Korean Ambassador to Burma	Rangoon	Burma	October 9, 1983	killed by North Korean agents
Ravindra Mhatre	Indian Diplomat to the United Kingdom	Birmingham	United Kingdom	February 6, 1984	killed by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
Leamon Hunt	Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers	Rome	Italy	February 15, 1984	killed by the Red Brigades
	Soviet consular official to Lebanon	unknown	Lebanon	1985	killed by captors
	Iraqi Ambassador to Finland	Helsinki	Finland	January 30, 1985	killed by Baathist Iraqi agents[citation needed]
Gerold Braunmühl	West German Attaché	Bonn	West Germany	October 10, 1986	killed by the Red Army Faction (alleged)
William Nordeen	American diplomat	Athens	Greece	June 28, 1988	killed by a car bomb claimed by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November
	Spanish Ambassador to Lebanon	Beirut	Lebanon	April 16, 1989	killed by a rocket[citation needed]
	French Ambassador to Zaire	Kinshasa	Zaire	January 28, 1993	killed by a stray bullet during a looting rampage by local soldiers[6]
Choe Deok-geun	South Korean consular official to the Russian Far East	Vladivostok	Russia	October 1, 1996	killed by North Korea (alleged)
	Venezuelan Ambassador to Jamaica	Kingston	Jamaica	November 6, 1997	unknown[7]
Kassi Manlan	World Health Organization Representative to Burundi	Lake Tanganyika	Burundi	November 20, 2001	killed by officials of Pierre Buyoya
Laurence Foley	American diplomat	Amman	Jordan	October 28, 2002	killed by Salem bin Suweid and Yasser Freihat
Sérgio Vieira de Mello	United Nations Special Representative for Iraq	Baghdad	Iraq	August 19, 2003	killed in the Canal Hotel bombing, claimed by Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad
Roger Short	British Consul General to Turkey	Istanbul	Turkey	November 20, 2003	killed by Al-Qaeda in a truck bombing
Michael Courtney	Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi	Bujumbura	Burundi	December 29, 2003	killed by National Forces of Liberation
Ihab el-Sherif	Egyptian ambassador to Iraq	Baghdad	Egypt	July 7, 2005	kidnaped and killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq
John Granville	American diplomat	Khartoum	Sudan	January 1, 2008	killed by gunmen
Colonel Imam	Consul-General of Pakistan	Mir Ali	Pakistan	January 23, 2011	killed by the Asian Tigers
J. Christopher Stevens	United States Ambassador to Libya	Benghazi	Libya	September 11, 2012	killed by Ansar al-Sharia
Anne Smedinghoff	American diplomat	Qalati Ghilji	Afghanistan	April 6, 2013	killed by a suicide bomber
Jamal al-Jamal	Palestinian Ambassador to the Czech Republic	Prague	Czech Republic	January 1, 2014	killed by a bomb
Andrei Karlov	Russian Ambassador to Turkey	Ankara	Turkey	December 19, 2016	killed by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş
Kyriakos Amiridis	Greek Ambassador to Brazil	Nova Iguaçu	Brazil	December 26, 2016	killed by Sérgio Moreira
Luca Attanasio	Italian Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo	Goma	Democratic Republic of the Congo	February 22, 2021	killed by unknown attackers during a kidnapping attempt

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Runciman, Steven (1987). A History of the Crusades: Volume 3, The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521347723.