---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 2:19 PM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: Attack on Port Sudan To: Group <[email protected]>
1. Mystery strike on car kills two in Port Sudan * Two people killed when car hit - witnesses * Police say car probably hit by missile * Foreign aircraft bombs car - state media, official Tue Apr 5, 2011 11:15pm GMT By Khaled Abdelaziz KHARTOUM, April 5 (Reuters) - Two people were killed in an attack on a car near Port Sudan on Tuesday, which police suggested was a missile fired from the sea, while state media and a regional government official blamed a foreign aircraft. 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. "A missile from an unknown source probably bombed the car," police spokesman Ahmed Al-Tahmi told Reuters. 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." Tahir said the two people killed were travelling into the town from the airport when their car was hit. They have not been identified. Sudan's foreign ministry declined to comment. Sudan's army was not immediately available to comment. This is not the first time mystery has surrounded a strike in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state. In January 2009, unknown aircraft hit a convoy of suspected arms smugglers on a remote road in the state according to Sudanese officials, a strike that some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza. A total of 119 people were killed in that strike near Sudan's border with Egypt, according to state media, even though the attack was disclosed only two months after it occurred. 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. (Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom; writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Philippa Fletcher) http://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFLDE73429X20110405?sp=true END1 2. Air strike on car in Port Sudan kills two * Published 00:44 06.04.11 * Latest update 00:44 06.04.11 Unidentified aircraft flying from the Red Sea bombs car in Sudan's main port city; in 2009, convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft, which some reports said was carried out by Israel to stop weapons reaching Gaza. HAARETZ.com (Israel) - By Avi Issacharoff, Amos Harel, Yossi Melman and Reuters Two people were killed in an attack on a car near Port Sudan on Tuesday, which police suggested was a missile fired from the sea, while state media and a regional government official blamed a foreign aircraft. 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. "A missile from an unknown source probably bombed the car," police spokesman Ahmed Al-Tahmi told Reuters. 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." Tahir said the two people killed were travelling into the town from the airport when their car was hit. They have not been identified. Sudan's foreign ministry declined to comment. Sudan's army was not immediately available to comment. 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-defense/air-strike-on-car-in-port-sudan-kills-two-1.354308 END2 3. Israel strikes again in Sudan? April 5, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese authorities revealed on Tuesday that a Sonata vehicle was destroyed as a result of a foreign attack but offered conflicting accounts on whether it was carried out by planes or missiles fired from the Red Sea. Multiple security sources told Sudan Tribune that the two men who were inside the car and killed instantly, had just arrived in town through Port Sudan airport. Their identities however, remain unknown and the sources said that both men appear to have been under the careful watch of the party that carried out the attack throughout their stay in the country. The Sudanese Media Center Website (SMC) which is widely believed to be run by the country’s security bureau, was the first to report the news saying that a foreign plane launched the attack at 9 pm local time (1800 GMT) in an area known as Kalaneeb which was described as 14 kilometers away from the coastal city of Port Sudan and on the main road leading to the regional airport. It further reported that Sudanese ant-aircraft defenses responded with heavy fire forcing the plane to flee their airspace. However, in the early morning hours of Wednesday SMC quoted the deputy Red Sea governor Salah Sir Al-Khitim Kenna as saying that no planes were involved and that it was only a missile fired against the target but did not elaborate. Earlier today, the police issued a statement saying that a missile hit the car "from an unknown source" but added that it was likely fired from the Red Sea. It also gave a different time for when this took place saying it happened at 8:05 PM (17:05 GMT) The confusion is exacerbated by separate remarks made by the deputy chairman of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in the Red Sea state Mohamed Tahir Hussein who said that eyewitnesses told him that a plane came from the Red Sea, hit the car and headed back. Hussein added that "mystery" surrounds the identity of the attackers but he pointed fingers at Israel’s spy agency (Mossad) and suggested that the planes belongs to them and was tracking down arms smugglers. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) declined to comment on the incident when contacted by Ynetnews based in Tel Aviv. Sudan’s foreign ministry also declined to comment. Sudan’s army was not immediately available to comment. A local MP by the name Mustafa Mandar had told SMC that the plane was following the vehicle until it came to an open area and sent bombs its way. He vehemently denied that Eastern Sudan has become a transit point for arms smuggling. Some analysts speaking to Sudan Tribune speculated that this was an assassination plot against the two men who were in the car given its limited capacity to transport any significant amount of arms. "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." Two years ago it was disclosed that Israel carried out an unknown number of airstrikes in early 2009 in Eastern Sudan using fighter jets against a convoy of arms that was allegedly headed to the Gaza strip which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and other officials in Khartoum at the time acknowledged that Israel was likely behind the air raids which state media reported to have killed 119 illegal immigrants who were trying to sneak into Europe. The Jewish state has declined to confirm or deny the reports on its involvement but the then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the government is "operating in every area in which terrorist infrastructures can be struck". Last month, the Egyptian media quoting army sources said that it had shelled a convoy of vehicles laden with arms near the Sudanese border. No further details were given and Khartoum has reportedly asked for clarifications from Cairo. In recent says Sudan has denied media reports on smuggling of weapons through Sudan to reach Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. (ST) END3 4. Airstrike by unknown plane kills two in eastern Sudan April 5, 2011 (KHARTOUM) - Two people have been killed when their small car was destroyed on Tuesday evening by an unknown plane on the road from Port Sudan airport to town in eastern Sudan, a state official has told AFP. "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 said by telephone. The official did not give details on the identity of the two dead people or the plane that conducted the airstrike. According to Tahir, the unidentified plane, which struck at about 10:00 pm local time, flew in from the Red Sea, to which it then returned. U.S and Israeli intelligence have in recent years stepped up efforts to prevent arms from reaching Gaza strip. In January 2009 Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike on a convoy believed to be smuggling arms to Hamas movement in a desert area near the Mount Al-Sha’anoon in Northwest of Port Sudan city in eastern Sudan. The attack left dozens killed. (ST) END4 5. BBC April 2011 Last updated at 11:21 Sudan: Air strike kills two in Port Sudan A "foreign" aircraft has destroyed a car near Sudan's city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, killing its two passengers, local officials say. Police say a missile probably came from the direction of the Red Sea. Some sources suggest two helicopters could have been involved. The car, said to be a Hyundai Sonata, was about 15km (nine miles) south of Port Sudan at the time. There was no immediate word on the identity of the two victims. Security forces have now sealed off the area, reports say. So far no-one has claimed to have carried out the attack. "We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters news agency. "Eyewitnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked liked Apaches flying past." The car had been travelling into the city from the airport, one Sudanese official said. Gaza connection? In 2009 the Sudanese authorities said a convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state. There was speculation at the time that the strike may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza. The then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to give credence to an Israeli hand in that attack, saying "we operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places and in places further away". Israel has not commented on the latest incident. The BBC's James Copnall, in the Sudanese capital, says Hamas, the group which controls the Gaza Strip, is on good terms with Khartoum. There has been an uneasy peace in eastern Sudan for several years, following one of Sudan's many civil wars. But the region is very underdeveloped even by Sudanese standards, and there are fears about increased illegal activity there, our correspondent says. Analysis Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent Reports of the incident are contradictory and much remains speculation. Nonetheless it looks as though this attack could be one more reminder of the shadowy war that is being waged along Sudan's Red Sea coast. The intelligence-gathering is constant. Engagements though are few and far between. The struggle pits the Israeli military against well-organised arms smugglers seeking to get weaponry into the Gaza Strip. Of course Israel is not the only country potentially responsible for the missile attack. The US too on occasion has fired missiles at alleged terror targets in Sudan. But this attack against individuals who were clearly considered specific targets suggests a complex intelligence-driven operation. It could well have countering arms-smuggling as its goal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12976951 END5 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan Advisor Sudan Ecumenical Forum [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +249 919 695 362 (Sudan mobile) +27 82 853 3556 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. 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