From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon May 25 2009 - 21:16:50 EDT
Air strike on Sudan convoy killed 119 - state media
Mon May 25, 2009 5:23pm EDT
KHARTOUM, May 25 (Reuters) - A total of 119 people were killed when
unidentified aircraft attacked a convoy of vehicles travelling close to
Sudan's border with Egypt in January, state media reported on Monday.
Sudan's defence minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein made a report to
parliament saying the attack on a suspected smuggling convoy was still under
investigation, the state Suna news agency said.
Details of the air strike on a remote road in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state
first appeared in the international media in March and sparked widespread
speculation.
Newspaper reports in Egypt and the United States suggested the attack was
aimed at arms smugglers bound for Hamas-ruled Gaza via Sudan and Egypt and
was carried out by either the United States or Israel.
Sudanese officials told Reuters at the time they suspected Israel, which was
at the time engaged in an offensive in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim
of halting rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants.
The United States denied any involvement while Israeli officials refused to
confirm or deny their planes or unmanned drones took part.
At the time, estimates of the death toll from the attack ranged from 30 to
40.
According to Suna, Hussein's report said the attack was on a convoy that was
made up of 1,000 civilians involved in "a smuggling process at the border
with Egypt".
"(The minister) disclosed that 119 people were killed; among them were 56
smugglers and 63 smuggled persons from Ethiopian, Somali and other
nationalities," read the report.
Hussein said the ongoing investigation was being carried out in cooperation
with Sudan's ministry of foreign affairs, security agencies and authorities
from neighbouring countries.
Sudanese officials, speaking on condition on anonymity, told Reuters in
March it was an open secret arms smugglers used the remote roads running
along Sudan's red Sea coast for the smuggling of arms, contraband and
refugees.
Sudan remains on a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but the State
Department has said it is cooperating with efforts against militant groups.
A report from the U.S.-based Washington Institute for Near East Policy this
year quoted Israeli sources as accusing Iran of helping Hamas smuggle arms
into Gaza via Sudan and Egypt. Egypt says it does its best to stop the
smuggling. (Reporting by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Charles Dick)
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