The US embassy in Pretoria and consulates and other offices, including development aid offices, were closed 22 September due to a security threat. The source of the threat was not revealed by embassy spokesperson Sharon Hudson Dean. South African national police commissioner Bheki Cele told reporters in Cape Town, “Our intelligence world is dealing with it. It is under control.” A state department spokesman in Washington asked US citizens to be vigilant when in the vicinity of US government offices.

US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously in 1998 with the loss of 224 lives and many more wounded. US military forces last week killed one of the main suspects in those attacks in a helicopter raid in Somalia. Militant Islamists fighting the Western-backed government in Somalia vowed revenge on the US for that attack. BBC, Mail&Guardian, South Africa

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