Sudan says US troops raiding its embassy in Baghdad

Jan 17, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan accused U.S. troops of storming its embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday and protested to Iraqi and U.S. diplomats, the Sudanese official news agency said.

The agency reported that nine U.S. soldiers raided the mission but gave no further details. It was not clear whether anyone was at the embassy at the time because Sudan has run its diplomatic operations for Iraq out of Amman, Jordan’s capital, since last year after several employees were kidnapped in Baghdad.

The U.S. military spokesman’s office in Baghdad said it had no knowledge of a raid on the Sudanese Embassy and no Sudanese were being held in the detention center.

Lou Fintor, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said U.S. officials were aware of reports of the incident and were looking into them.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Labib Abbawi said in Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi forces went to the Sudanese Embassy 10 days ago to check identification cards. He did not elaborate and had no information whether any raid took place Wednesday.

In Khartoum, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry protested to the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi ambassador Samir Khairi Al-Nemaa, the Sudan News Agency said.

The deputy head of mission, Roberto Powers, was summoned by the Foreign Ministry “and they expressed their displeasure over the incident,” a U.S. embassy official in Khartoum told AP.

The official said the U.S. mission in Khartoum did not have any details about what happened at Sudan’s embassy in Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with embassy policy.

(AP)