Sudan says Israel behind air strike

Sudan said on Sunday it had irrefutable evidence that Israel carried out the air strike on its Red Sea coast last week that killed two people and destroyed the car they were travelling in.

Tuesday’s attack was carried out by two AH-64 Apache helicopters, about 15km south of Port Sudan, Sudan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

They flew in from the Red Sea and unleashed a barrage of Hellfire missiles and machinegun fire on the car after having jammed the local radar system, the statement added.

The US-made helicopters were not owned by any country in the region except Israel, said the statement.

While Israel has refused to comment on the raid, officials there have previously expressed concern about arms smuggling through Sudan, which has close ties with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

The attack mirrored a similar strike by foreign aircraft on a truck convoy reportedly laden with weapons in eastern Sudan in January 2009.

Khartoum has already named the two occupants of the car, whose charred remains were buried on Friday, insisting they were both Sudanese nationals, and denying that Sudan was harbouring Islamic militant groups.

The foreign ministry says Israel carried out the strike in an attempt to tarnish Sudan’s name and prevent it being removed from the US terror blacklist.

The Khartoum government is desperately seeking Sudan’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terror.

Washington promised this in return for their allowing January’s referendum on southern independence to take place, and for accepting the overwhelming vote for secession.

Sudan said it planned to lodge a formal complaint against Israel with the UN Security Council and would take similar action at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. - AFP