Unidentified "foreign" aircraft targets passenger car at Port Sudan

[Magda Hassan]

Deaths in Port Sudan air strike
Officials say unidentified near airport, killing two people.

Last Modified: 06 Apr 2011 00:00





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An unidentified "foreign" plane has bombed a car in the Sudanese city of Port Sudan, killing two people, officials have said.
"A plane bombed a small car which was coming from Port Sudan airport to the town ... There were two people in the car and both were killed. The vehicle was completely destroyed," Mohammed Tahir, the speaker of the Red Sea state parliament, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
The plane flew in from the direction of the Red Sea, destroyed the vehicle at about 10:00pm (19:00 GMT), and returned in the direction from which it came, Tahir said.
The Sudanese Media Centre, a news agency reportedly linked to Sudan's state security apparatus, said the army responded with missiles that the plane managed to evade.
The centre "confirmed it was a foreign plane" but did not say where the plane came from or where it went and did not identify the two dead people, who were in the car when it was hit.
A police official suggested a missile had been fired from the sea.
A witness told Reuters news agency that there was heavy presence of security forces at the scene, about 20km from Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea State, 660km northeast of capital Khartoum.
"They are preventing anyone from getting close. I can see one burnt-out car," the witness said.
Previous 'Israeli' attack
A source at Port Sudan said three loud explosions had been heard.
"We went outside to see what was happening and witnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked liked Apaches flying past," the source said.
In January 2009, a convoy of suspected arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft, also in Red Sea State. That attack was reportedly carried out by Israel - to stop weapons bound for Gaza. At least 40 people were reportedly killed in the incident, which was disclosed only two months after it occurred. State media said the death toll was 119.
A member of Sudan's parliament quoted by the media centre after Tuesday's attack, Mustafa Mundir, denied that weapons are transported in the area.
The United States maintains a "counterterrorism" base in nearby Djibouti which has been active against al-Qaeda suspects on both sides of the Red Sea, according to AFP.
The Palestinian Hamas movement has also reportedly maintained a "base-in-exile" in Sudan, and Israeli officials have expressed concern about suspected arms smuggling through the country.

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[Magda Hassan]

Sudan accuses Israel of carrying out air strike on Port Sudan

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declines to comment on accusation; Israel was accused in 2009 of carrying out a strike in Sudan to stop the smuggling of weapons most likely from Iran, bound for Gaza.

By Avi Issacharoff, Amos Harel, Yossi MelmanSudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out a strike on a car near Port Sudan that killed two people.

Sudanese police have said a missile struck the car near the port city on Tuesday. A state government official said the strike was carried out by a foreign aircraft that flew in from the Red Sea.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the accusation.
A photo of the attack on Port Sudan on April 5, 2010.
Photo by: Sudan Tribune Two people were killed in an attack on a car near Port Sudan on Tuesday. Witnesses at the scene near the airport at Sudan's main port city said the small car was destroyed and the two charred bodies of its passengers could be seen.
"This is absolutely an Israeli attack," he told reporters. He said Israel undertook the attack in order scupper Sudan's chances of being removed from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
One of the two people killed in the strike was a Sudanese citizen who had no ties to Islamists or the government, he said.
Sudan is on a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but Washington this year initiated the process to remove it from that list after a peaceful January referendum in which the country's south voted to secede.
"A missile from an unknown source probably bombed the car," police spokesman Ahmed Al-Tahmi told Reuters on Tuesday. He earlier told local radio the missile had likely been fired from the Red Sea.
The Sudanese Media Centre, a news agency linked to Sudan's state security apparatus, and the speaker of the Red Sea state parliament, Ahmed Tahir, said an unidentified aircraft had flown into Sudanese air space to bomb the car.
The plane came in from the Red Sea and flew back after the bombing, Tahir said. The Sudanese Media Centre said the army responded with missiles that the foreign plane managed to evade.
"We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters. "We went outside to see what was happening and eye witnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked liked Apaches flying past."
This is not the first time mystery has surrounded a strike in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state.
In January 2009, a convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state according to Sudanese authorities, a strike that some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons that most probably came from Iran and were bound for Gaza.
A total of 119 people were killed in that strike near Sudan's border with Egypt, according to state media.
Following the 2009 attack, there were reports that Israeli aircraft were operating against smuggling ships intending on transferring weapons to Hamas in Gaza.
The area of Sudan serves as a smuggling area for weapons provided by Iran, as well as weapons purchased in the black markets of Yemen, Somalia, and Eritrea.
Israeli officials, including former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have spoken about "the long arm" of Israel which reaches areas far from its borders, and also suggested Israeli presence around the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-de...n-1.354440