From 1967 to 1972 the embassy was closed, and a U.S. Interest Section was opened in the Netherlands Embassy. In 1973 Ambassador Cleo A. Noel, Jr. was taken hostage and killed by the Black September Organization during the attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum. The embassy was again closed in 1996, though reopened in 2002, since which time the United States has posted several chargés d'affaires ad interim to the country.