Sudan rebels say behind attack on Sudanese army

Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:54am GMT
 

By Hereward Holland

JUBA (Reuters) - Rebel groups in Sudan said on Monday they had captured a Sudanese army garrison near the border with South Sudan in an operation that Khartoum blamed on the south's army.

The rebels said in a statement they killed 130 members of the government forces in the attack. The figure could not be independently verified.

The South Sudan government said none of its forces were involved, but the assault fuelled tensions between the neighbours already at odds over oil exports and border disputes. Any involvement of southern forces would have violated a non-aggression pact signed by the two sides this month.

The clashes on Sunday took place in the South Kordofan province on Sudan's side of the ill-defined border with South Sudan, a flashpoint between the two countries.

The newly formed rebel umbrella group Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) said its forces were behind the assault on the military post around Lake Obyad, which lies near the boundary.

The SRF was formed last year between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), who operate in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), based in Darfur in the west of Sudan.

"It is a victory, the first victory under the umbrella of the SRF to have two forces fighting together," SRF spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told Reuters by telephone.

The SPLM-N's fighters fought alongside the forces of what is now the south's ruling SPLM during Sudan's civil war that ended with a peace deal in 2005 and led to southern secession in 2011.   Continued...

 
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