اخبار عن انفجارات في جنوب الخرطوم الان واخلاء للمنازل

Sudan threatens retaliation over alleged Israeli air strike Minister warns that Khartoum 'reserves the right to strike back' after blaming Israel for attack on Yarmouk arms complex Share 192 Email Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem and David Smith in Johannesburg guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 October 2012 20.51 BST Fire raging at the Yarmouk arms complex in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. The Sudanese government blames the incident on Israel. Photograph: Reuters Sudan has warned that it has the right to retaliate after accusing Israel of carrying out an air strike on an arms factory, causing a huge explosion that killed two people. Ahmed Belal Osman, the Sudanese information minister, said that bombs from four aircraft struck a complex and triggered a blast that rocked the capital, Khartoum, before dawn on Wednesday. "Four planes coming from the east bombed the Yarmouk industrial complex," Belal told a press conference. "They used sophisticated technology … We believe that Israel is behind it." Belal recalled a 2009 attack on an arms convoy in the Red Sea province in eastern Sudan, resulting in scores of deaths, which his government also blamed on Israel. "We are now certain that this flagrant attack was authorised by the same state of Israel," he added. "The main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any development there, and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty. "Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel." Officials showed journalists a video in which a huge crater could be seen next to two destroyed buildings and what appeared to be a rocket lying on the ground. Belal said an analysis of rocket debris and other material on the ground had shown that Israel was behind the attack. Sudan may take the issue to the UN security council, he added. The Israeli Defence Forces and foreign ministry both declined to comment on the Sudanese claim. Israel has a track record of carrying out operations against hostile states, but rarely acknowledges such actions. It has no diplomatic relationship with Sudan, and believes the country to have a role in arms trafficking to militant groups in Gaza. "It has been widely acknowledged that shipments of weapons are crossing Sudan on their way to Gaza," said an Israeli government source. The weapons were not thought to originate in Sudan but Khartoum was allowing trafficking to happen, he said. Khartoum has blamed Israel for previous attacks over recent years. In April 2011, two people were killed when a car was struck by a missile near Port Sudan."This is not the first time things have been attributed to us," said the Israeli government source. The powerful blast at the Yarmouk complex, which was built in 1996, sent exploding ammunition flying through the air. Local resident Abdelgadir Mohammed, 31, said a loud roar of what they believed was a plane prompted him and his brother to step outside their house at around midnight. "At first we thought it was more than one plane," he told the Associated Press. "Then we thought it was a plane crashing because of how sharp the sound was. Then we saw a flash of light, and after it came a really loud sound. It was an explosion." Mohammed said the explosion caused panic among the residents of the heavily populated low-income neighbourhood. Many fled to open spaces, fearing their homes were collapsing. He said ammunition was flying out of the factory into the air and falling inside homes. "It was a double whammy, the explosion at the factory and then the ammunition flying into the neighborhood. The ground shook. Some homes were badly damaged. The walls of our home cracked, so we left our house to sleep elsewhere. When we came back this morning, our beds and furniture were covered in ashes." Thick smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters needed more than two hours to extinguish the fire. Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmy Khaled said two people were killed and another was seriously injured. Others suffered from smoke inhalation. The US imposed economic, trade and financial sanctions against Sudan in 1997, citing the government's support for terrorism, including its sheltering of Osama bin Laden in Khartoum the mid-1990s.

Israeli Official: Sudan is a 'Terrorist State' A top Israeli defense official said that Sudan was a terrorist state, and that its accusations against Israel could not be taken seriously. AAFont Size By David Lev First Publish: 10/25/2012, 11:02 AM Amos Gilad Flash 90 Israel hit back at Sudan Thursday, after Khartoum on Wednesday accused Israel of attacking a military installation in the country. A top Israeli defense official told Army Radio that Sudan was a terrorist state, and that its accusations that Israel engaged in terrorism against that country could not be taken seriously. “Sudan is a dangerous terrorist state. To know exactly what happened (there), it will take some time to understand," said Amos Gilad, director of policy and political-military affairs at the Defense Ministry. "There are different versions of the Sudanese side, so there is no reason to go into details," Gilad responded to questions of Israeli involvement in the attack. Sudan says it has evidence that Israeli warplanes carried out the attack, although it has so far failed to present that evidence. Sudan claimed that four Israeli aircraft fired missiles that hit a military factory and killed two people in Khartoum. The explosion at the military factory in Sudan's capital before dawn Wednesday sent detonating ammunition flying through the air, causing panic among residents, the official news agency and local media reports said. Sudan has demanded that the UN Security Council condemn Israel for the raid. A Sudanese official, Bilal Osman, said that a response by Sudan for the attack would be forthcoming, although “we reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose." Israeli officials have long been following the situation in Sudan, which security officials said was a major source of weapons for Gaza Arab terrorists. Gangs of terrorists trained and set up areas of influence in the remote parts of the country, with large weapons warehouses. According to security officials, Sudan is a major hub on the route of smugglers moving weapons from Iran and Syria to terror groups in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere. Several months ago, a car carrying several weapons smugglers and a large amount of weapons exploded at Port Sudan. Sudan accused Israel of involvement in that attack as well. Meanwhile, a report in Arab media Thursday said that the U.S. had closed its embassy in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, on Tuesday – just before the attack took place, as if the U.S. had advanced knowledge of the attack. Hundreds of Sudanese gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum calling for “death to Israel” and “death to America,” as they burned American and Israeli flags.

PM, Barak maintain official silence on strike against Khartoum munitions factory. PHOTO: REUTERS/STRINGER A top Israeli defense official accused Sudan on Thursday of being a “dangerous terrorist state,” after Khartoum blamed Israel for a Tuesday night air raid on a munitions plant. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, director of policy and political military affairs at the Defense Ministry, refused to address allegations of Israel’s involvement in the attack, which Sudan claims took place at midnight Tuesday on the Yarmouk army factory in southern Khartoum. Related: Sudan breaks up protest, blames Zionist plot “We need time to understand exactly what happened there, but the role of Sudan is clear: It is a dangerous terrorist state,” Gilad told Army Radio. He accused Khartoum of aiding and abetting terrorism, and said the Sudanese regime was “supported by Iran” and was used as a route to transfer weapons to Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, via Egypt. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday said Israel had nothing to say about the explosion at the arms factory. Netanyahu’s comments followed those by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who when asked by Channel 2 News about Sudan’s accusations, said: “There is nothing I can say about this subject.” Sudan called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israel for the attack, which killed two people. Sudan accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out an air strike on the military plant, saying it found evidence including rocket debris that the IAF was involved in the attack. A huge fire broke out at the arms factory, which witnesses said was rocked by several explosions. Firefighters took more than two hours to extinguish the blaze at Sudan’s main factory for ammunition and small arms. Sudan’s Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes had bombed the military plant. According to Sudanese newspaper Al-Rakoba, Osman said that the weaponry used in the attack was not owned by any other country in the region except Israel. The attacker managed to disable radar at Khartoum airport before the air strike, Osman said, claiming that Israel had previously said that the Yarmouk plant threatened its interests, Al-Rakoba reported. According to the paper, 60 percent of the plant was destroyed in the attack, with the remaining 40 percent partially destroyed. Osman said the Sudanese authorities had already begun work to transfer the plant to a location away from the capital, and Israel knew that and took the opportunity to strike it. Four aircraft came from the east and returned in the same direction, Osman said, adding that Sudan “reserved the right to strike back at Israel. “We will take more decisive steps towards Israeli interests which we now consider legitimate targets,” Al-Rakoba cited the minister as saying. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) says that Sudan is the central crossroads in a major weapons smuggling route from Iran that then passes through Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula and from there on to the Gaza Strip. Iran is directly involved in procuring the weapons and helping transfer them to Hamas in Gaza, according to the Shin Bet. Sudan’s information minister declined to say whether any weapons from Yarmouk had ended up in Gaza, saying that only “traditional weapons in line with international law” were produced there. Sudan is also an important center for Hamas fund-raising, according to a report by the US-based NEFA Foundation. The report identified former Sudanese president Abd al- Rahman Siwar al-Dhahab as the deputy leader of the Itilaf al-Khayr (“Union of Good”), a coalition of 50 Islamic charities that funds Hamas. Sudan’s UN Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman called on the Security Council to condemn the attack, “because it is a blatant violation of the concept of peace and security. “It jeopardizes peace and security in the entire region, not just in Sudan,” he told the council during a briefing on UN peacekeepers in Darfur. “We call on you to stop foreign hands from meddling in the Darfur conflict and to help Sudan arrive at a final solution that would maintain peace and security.” Iran also moved to condemn the attack, and said that Israel was behind it. The “unjustified aggression” was “certain confirmation of the brutality of the Zionist regime,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported. Also on Thursday, pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that the US Embassy in Khartoum closed shortly before the attack, which had led to speculation there that the US may have known about the strike before it happened. Al-Hayat said the embassy had stopped providing consular services in September, in the wake of riots in response to the anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims, and suggested embassy staff could have feared another attack. The Hurriyat Sudan newspaper reported on Thursday afternoon that the Sudanese government had waited until it received information regarding the source of the attack before making any official announcements. Hurriyat Sudan cited an anonymous security expert as saying that while Khartoum was unable to respond to the attack militarily, it reserved the right to retaliate and could do so indirectly. According to the unnamed source, Sudan could respond by continuing to provide weapons to Palestinian movements in Gaza, by supporting more regional movements that are hostile to Israel, and by targeting South Sudan, which Khartoum believes is cooperating with Israel militarily. Major damage to the Yarmouk plant would be a blow to Sudan’s army in its battle against insurgencies in the western region of Darfur and the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, bordering rival South Sudan. Khartoum has blamed Israel for previous strikes. In May, Sudan’s government said one person had been killed after a car exploded in the eastern city of Port Sudan. It said the explosion resembled a blast last year that it had blamed on an Israeli missile strike. Israel declined to comment on the May incident or the 2011 blast, which killed two people. Khartoum also blamed Israel for two 2009 attacks on a suspected arms convoy in a remote desert area of Sudan, in which up to 40 people were killed. Sudan had initially accused the US of the attacks but later said they “most probably involved Israel.” Some media reports said the vehicles in the convoy were carrying arms destined for Hamas in Gaza. In 1998, the United States fired missiles at the El Shifa medicine factory in Khartoum. US officials said it was producing chemical weapons ingredients and was partly owned by Osama bin Laden, who once lived in Khartoum. Sudan insisted the plant made only pharmaceuticals. The attack followed the bombings of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed at least 226 people, including 12 Americans. The attacks were blamed on al-Qaida. Reuters contributed to this report.

he British Sunday Times has published a detailed report on what it claims was an Israeli attack on an Iranian-run missile factory in Sudan last week. The Sunday Times regularly reports at length on Israeli secret operations, Sunday's piece by the paper's reporters in Tel Aviv and Nairobi is based on Israeli and western "security sources" and claims that the attack was carried out by the Israeli Air Force and includes details on the strike-force, the stages of the attack and the target. Not all the details tally with other known facts. According to the paper, the attack was carried out in the early hours by four two-seater F-15I "Ra'am" fighter-bombers, each carrying two one-ton bombs and accompanied by four additional F-15s providing air-cover in case Sudanese Mig-29 fighters attempted to intercept. Along with the fighters were two CH-53 "Yasur" helicopters carrying teams of IAF search-and-rescue commandos in case air-crew from a downed fighter needed extracting from enemy territory. The fighters were refueled en-route by a Boeing 707 "Re'em" aerial tanker and a Gulfstream 550 "Shavit" executive, adapted for electronic warfare, jammed the Sudanese radar and air-defense systems. According to the report, the fighters took off from a Negev airbase and flew for four hours over the Red Sea on a round route of 3,900 kilometers. The newspaper reports that during the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai two years ago, Mossad Agents obtained a signed agreement between Iran and Sudan regarding the manufacture of arms in Sudan under the supervision of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. According to the report, the operation was carried out under the direct supervision of IAF Commander Major General Amir Eshel and was planned over a long period which included two long-range exercises. Eshel and IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz supervised the mission from IAF command post at the Kirya in Tel Aviv and updated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon completion. The American administration received advance notification and the U.S. embassy in Khartoum was closed as a precaution. According to a "military source" quoted in the report, two central challenges in the attack were to evade detection by Egyptian radar and air-traffic control in neighboring Djibouti. The jamming and evasive tactics seemed to have worked, as no Sudanese fighters were launched against the attackers. Most of the details in the British paper's report are similar to those that have been published in foreign reports on the Israeli attack on the Syrian nuclear reactor at Deir a-Zour five years ago in September 2007. Some of the details seem unlikely, including the claim that the target was a factory building Shahab ballistic missiles which were meant for Hamas and other Iranian allies in the region - it is highly improbable that Iran would allow manufacture of its most advanced missile outside its territory and organizations such as Hamas (which has poor relations with Iran recently) and Hezbollah have no use for a missile with a range of thousands of kilometers. Also from satellite images of the strike's results, it seems that the target was not the factory but storage containers held nearby, which indicates that the mission's objective was an arms shipment and not weapons manufacturers. Neither does one of the more colorful details in the report, that the squadron commander flew low over the target after the bombing to survey the damage make much sense. The IAF, if indeed it carried out the attack, has advanced unmanned reconnaissance systems capable of gauging the strike's success without risking air-crew over enemy territory.