KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Sudan is demanding a formal apology Wednesday from the United States for storming the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government summoned the U.S. acting chargé d'affaires in Khartoum to lodge a formal protest against the U.S. forces' storming of the Sudanese diplomatic mission in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.
He said the ministry denounced the raid as a "violation of the most basic rules of diplomacy and the Vienna Accords that requires an apology and a guarantee such measures would not be repeated." The spokesman added the U.S. diplomat promised to pass on the protest to his government.
Earlier in the day, Khartoum also summoned Iraq's ambassador in Sudan to protest the same incident, adding the envoy offered an apology and promised to seek an explanation from Baghdad.
A diplomatic source told United Press International a group of U.S. troops, in five armored vehicles, stormed the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad Tuesday, conducted a thorough search of its offices and interrogated two Sudanese employees.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the American soldiers then questioned and searched Iraqi police guarding the embassy, after which the troops left the premises without making any arrests and without explanation, but threw in an apology on site.
The Sudanese mission in Baghdad has been officially closed and its diplomatic staff evacuated since December 2005 after al-Qaida in Iraq kidnapped six of its employees and threatened to kill them if the embassy does not shut down. The hostages were released after the embassy met these demands.
