Sudan
accuses Israel of bombing weapons factory, threatens to retaliate
Israel
was behind the bombing of a military factory that killed two people,
claims Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. Now, the Arab
North African state is threatening to respond in kind.
RT,
24
October, 2012
"We
think Israel did the bombing," Osman
told a news conference, adding that Sudan reserves “the
right to react at a place and time we choose." He
also told reporters that his government may take the issue up with
the United Nations Security Council.
The
minister said four planes were involved in the attack at the Yarmouk
military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum, and claimed
evidence recovered at the scene points to Israel’s involvement.
The
Yarmouk complex was built in 1996, and is one of two known
state-owned weapons manufacturing facilities in the Sudanese capital.
Residents
from the area told local newspapers that they saw planes flying
overhead just before the explosion. The blast blew roofs off houses,
shattered windows and set nearby trees ablaze. Several people
suffered from smoke exposure.
Thick
smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters fought the
blaze for hours.
It's
not the first time Sudanese officials have blamed such an incident on
Israel.
One
person was killed when a car blew up on the country's Red Sea coast
in May, about a year after Sudan blamed Israel for an air strike on a
vehicle in the same area. Witnesses to the May incident said they
heard a big blast that set the car ablaze and left two holes in the
ground.
In
January 2009, foreign aircraft struck a truck convoy reportedly laden
with weapons in the country’s east, killing dozens. The shipment
was rumored to be headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip,
though Sudanese parliamentarians denied the claims.
Osman
told the news conference that his country was certain the previous
attacks were ordered by the Israeli government. “The
main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any
development there and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty,” he
said.
Israel,
as is its policy, has neither admitted nor denied carrying out the
attack.
Khartoum
is seeking the removal of United States sanctions imposed in 1997
over support for international terrorism, its human rights record and
other concerns.
In
1998, US cruise missiles bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory
suspected of links to al-Qaeda in the wake of the terrorist group's
bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224
people.
Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)
Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)
Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)
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