Sudan protesters seen to call for attacks on Westerners

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTUOM (Reuters) - Sudanese protesters have called for attacks on Americans and other foreigners living in Khartoum during rallies against the Gaza offensive, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Students and religious groups have held small-scale protests almost every day since Israel started the attack on Gaza it says is in response to Islamist militants firing rockets into Israel.

The U.S. embassy in Khartoum said some protesters "have made threats against U.S. and other Western citizens in Sudan."

At least one speaker at a rally outside the embassy on Monday read out read out a list of places and neighbourhoods where Westerners are known to gather, the embassy said.

The list included Khartoum's Afra shopping centre; Amwag, a Middle Eastern restaurant; and O-Zone, an open air cafe popular with Westerners and rich Sudanese.

The threats come against the backdrop of an expected ruling from the International Criminal Court on whether to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan's president over suspected war crimes in Darfur.

A senior official from Sudan's Foreign Ministry told Reuters Monday an arrest warrant would fuel anti-Western sentiments already heightened by Gaza and promised to give diplomats advance warning if they were in danger.

Sudanese officials have said the global court's case is part of a Western conspiracy against Khartoum, led by the United States, Britain and France.