US shuts embassy in South Africa over security threat

JOHANNESBURG — The United States on Tuesday closed all its government facilities in South Africa, due to concerns raised by the regional US security office, the embassy's spokeswoman said."We received information from the regional security office which I cannot discuss," spokeswoman Sharon Hudson-Dean told AFP."Our current assumption is that all US government facilities will be open on Wednesday," she added.The closure highlighted the broader concerns about security in South Africa, ahead of the 2010 football World Cup, less than nine months away.South Africa's national police chief insisted that the situation was under control, saying intelligence services had been in contact with American officials."Our intelligence has had meetings with American personnel," police commissioner Bheki Cele told reporters in Cape Town."There are things that have happened, there are things that are happening. That issue is under control," he said.In addition to the main embassy complex in Pretoria, the United States maintains consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Offices of the US Agency for International Development have also been closed.On August 7, 1998, suicide bombers targeted the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in one of the most devastating attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
A total of 213 people, including 12 Americans and 34 local embassy staff, died in the Nairobi bombing. Another 11 died in the Tanzania blast.The blasts sparked an enormous effort to bolster security at US embassies around the world, and particularly across Africa.