Sudan behind Chad rebellion: minister The wreckage of burnt out cars in a N'Djamena street. The wreckage of burnt out cars in a N'Djamena street. Photo: AFP Advertisement February 4, 2008 - 11:54AM Sydney Morning Herald The Chadian government said today it had quashed a rebellion aimed at ousting President Idriss Deby and driven the rebels out of the capital Ndjamena. "The battle for Ndjamena is over," Foreign Minister Amad Allam-Mi told France's RTI radio in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in an interview in which he angrily accused the Sudanese of being directly behind the rebellion. A leading rebel told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity that the insurgents had simply withdrawn temporarily to allow civilians time to leave the capital. "People should not think that Deby has won. He is still entrenched in his bunker from which he cannot leave," he said on condition of anonymity. The capital, which was calm late today, had earlier been rocked by tank battles in the streets and helicopter air strikes. Anti-tank and automatic weapons fire was heard around the presidential palace, where Deby has been holed up since Friday. Bodies covered with flies littered the streets and aid groups reported hundreds of wounded from the fighting. Allam-Mi said Sudan had masterminded the rebel offensive in a bid to install its own Sudan-friendly administration in Ndjamena and "to close the window on the crisis in Darfur". He also threatened future incursions into Sudan to pursue the rebels. "Sudan has sent these attackers more than 700 kilometres to destroy our capital," he said. "If it is necessary for the security of Chad and for the defence of its integrity, we will go to Sudan." The rebels had earlier acknowledged that they had lost some ground as Chadian army helicopters attacked a rebel column near the national radio station headquarters in the capital. They also fired at other rebel vehicles in the city. An army unit guarded the national radio but gave up after running out of ammunition. Rebels then moved in, but witnesses said they left and looters ransacked the building and left it ablaze. No death toll from the fighting has been given but many bodies were left in the streets, some covered in flies some with plastic sheets put over them. The Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) aid group said hundreds of civilians had been wounded. About 400 people had fled across the western border into Cameroon, according to the UN refugee agency. The rebel force in pickup trucks started moving across the desert from a base near the eastern border with Sudan last Monday but major fighting only erupted Friday as they neared the capital. French military sources said there were about 2,000 rebel fighters and that Deby has at least 2,000 to 3,000 troops. The rebels were helped by Sudanese helicopters and Antonov military aircraft in an attack today on the eastern town of Adre near the border with Darfur, the local government prefect, General Abadi Sair told AFP. This was denied by a Sudan's state Minister for Foreign Affairs Sammani al-Wassila who called the Chad fighting an "internal affair". Allam-Mi told RTI tonight that the assault on Adre had also been repelled. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he was "profoundly alarmed" by the fighting in Chad as the Security Council began an emergency session on the crisis. AFP . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=54725/stime=1202144235/nc1=3848627/nc2=5028925/nc3=5170408> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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