US admits searched Sudan embassy compound in Iraq

Jan 18, 2007 (BAGHDAD) — U.S. forces searched part of the Sudanese embassy compound in Baghdad last week but only after requesting access from guards, the U.S. military said after Sudan complained its embassy had been raided by U.S. troops.

Sudan on Wednesday summoned the senior U.S. diplomat in Khartoum, saying U.S. troops had violated diplomatic conventions in the Jan. 13 incident.

On Wednesday U.S. military spokesman Christopher Garver said he “had no record” of any raid on the embassy. But a U.S. statement on Thursday said that information was given “in error”.

“Coalition Forces soldiers entered the Sudanese embassy grounds in Baghdad Jan. 13,” the statement said. “The soldiers entered the grounds after requesting entry to embassy guards.”

“While in the compound, the soldiers encountered two locked doors for which the guards did not have keys. Following consultation with the guards, the doors were forced open.

“The compound was searched as part of an operation in the general vicinity that was aimed at denying insurgents safe haven to carry out attacks against Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi citizens,” it said.

The statement said nothing was taken from the embassy but the matter was under investigation.

U.S. commanders have vowed to crack down on foreign agents in Iraq who it blames for fuelling the anti-government insurgency. Sudanese nationals are among many foreign Arab militants who have been arrested by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Earlier this month U.S. forces arrested five Iranians they said were intelligence agents in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil. Iran said they were diplomats. It was the second such incident involving the arrest of Iranians in weeks.

The Sudanese embassy has been officially closed for more than a year after Sudanese diplomats were targeted in attacks by insurgents in an effort to get Arab states to withdraw diplomatic representation in Iraq.

Ali al-Sadig, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday Sudan had demanded an apology from the U.S. charge d’affaires in Khartoum. “This violates all international norms and we expect an apology,” al-Sadig said.

“Nine American soldiers in four military vehicles forcibly went into the embassy after overpowering the guards and searched the embassy offices inside,” said al-Sadig.

Sudan has tense relations with the United States, which has imposed stringent economic sanctions on the African nation, and lists it as a “state sponsor of terror”.

(Reuters)