Attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum

On 1 March 1973, the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, was hosting a formal reception in honor of George Curtis Moore, the U.S. chargé d'affaires, who was being reassigned from his post. Eight masked gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Black September burst into the embassy, fired shots into the air, and took ten people hostage. Among those seized were Cleo A. Noel Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan; George Curtis Moore, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission to Sudan; Guy Eid, the Belgian chargé d'affaires to Sudan; Sheikh Abdullah al Malhouk, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Sudan, along with his wife and four children; Adli al Nasser, the Jordanian chargé d'affaires; and Jasim Bourisly, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Sudan.

The gunmen initially demanded the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, members of the Baader-Meinhof Group, and Sirhan Sirhan, who had assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. They later revised their demands, insisting that ninety Arab militants held by the Jordanian government be freed within 24 hours. U.S. Marines guarding the American embassy were prepared to storm the building, but were held back by orders from Washington due to the diplomatic complications of American forces operating on Saudi sovereign territory within Sudan. On 2 March, President Richard Nixon stated publicly that the United States would "not pay blackmail," rejecting the militants' demands.

After roughly twelve hours in captivity, the gunmen announced they had killed Noel, Moore, and Eid, having taken the three men to the embassy's basement. The militants then demanded an aircraft to take them and the remaining hostages to the United States; the request was denied by both American and Sudanese authorities. Following three days of negotiation with the Sudanese government, the gunmen released the surviving hostages and surrendered to Sudanese authorities.

In the aftermath, charges against two of the militants were dropped in October 1973 for insufficient evidence. A Sudanese court of inquiry tried the remaining six starting in June 1974, sentencing them to life imprisonment, later reduced to seven years. Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry, who was abroad during the attack, condemned the operation and transferred custody of the six men to the Palestine Liberation Organization, which sent them to Egypt to serve their sentences; three later disappeared from Egyptian custody and were never recaptured. In protest of Sudan's handling of the matter, the United States withdrew its ambassador and froze economic assistance to Sudan, resuming aid in 1976. U.S. officials also examined prosecuting Yasser Arafat over his alleged role, but in 1986 the Department of Justice concluded that applicable jurisdiction was lacking. Documents released by the U.S. State Department in December 2006 alleged that Arafat and Fatah had known of and ordered the plot in advance.