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US embassy in Khartoum to re-open after deadly demo

By AFP
Africa Smoke billows from the US embassy in Khartoum on September 14, 2012, during a protest against an amateur film.  By  AFPFile
SUN, 24 MAR 2013 LISTEN
Smoke billows from the US embassy in Khartoum on September 14, 2012, during a protest against an amateur film. By (AFP/File)

KHARTOUM (AFP) - The United States embassy resumes full service to the public on Monday, six months after the compound was damaged in a deadly demonstration sparked by a US-made film that mocked Islam.

"The consular section of the US embassy Khartoum, Sudan will resume full consular services," said a statement from Washington's mission in the Sudanese capital.

From Monday, the embassy will again offer visitors' visas and is to re-open its Information Resource Centre, a library.

An embassy official said the mission had essentially offered only emergency services since September 14 when thousands of protesters attacked the American, British and German embassies in Khartoum.

A medic said at the time that one demonstrator was killed when a police vehicle charged a group of stone-throwing protesters outside the US mission. A second protester was later found dead outside the embassy but it was not immediately clear how he died.

Guards on the embassy roof fired warning shots as demonstrators breached a security perimeter.

Protests spread around the Muslim world over the low-budget anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims".

The US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died when heavily-armed militants attacked the US consulate in Benghazi.

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