Sudanese rebels said they attacked five areas in North and South Kordofan states on Saturday, widening an anti-government offensive in one of their most audacious acts in years.

"This is a significant shift in the war in Sudan," Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads a faction of Darfur's Sudan Liberation Army, told AFP.

 

"We are heading to Khartoum," he said. "This is not a joke."

A regional political expert said the attacks were timed to the "failure" of peace talks this week between South Kordofan rebels and the government.

Residents in the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli said suspected rebel shelling was reported Saturday evening on the outskirts of the town. There was no immediate word of casualties.

In Umm Rawaba, the second largest town in North Kordofan, residents said rebels arrived Saturday morning on at least 20 vehicles for a brief occupation.

They fired their weapons into the air, causing panic, but met no initial resistance from security forces, townspeople said.

"We just saw some drones in the air," one resident said, adding that the insurgents looted the market.

Others said the town's inhabitants cowered in their homes as rebels shot at government buildings, hitting policemen, before withdrawing. The number of casualties could not be confirmed.

North Kordofan has been largely free from the rebel activity taking place in the Darfur region to its west, and South Kordofan to its south.

"This is part of our strategy to overthrow the regime," said Gibril Adam Bilal, spokesman for Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

"This is an attack deep in Sudanese territory."

JEM and factions of the Sudan Liberation Army from Darfur are grouped in the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) with insurgents from South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad said troops confronted the rebels, causing "heavy losses" after they reached Abu Kershola in the far north of South Kordofan.

But rebels then looted Allah Kareem village before targeting Umm Rawaba, Saad said.

"They destroyed the communication tower and electricity station and looted civilian property and a fuel station," he said, quoted by the official SUNA news agency.

"SAF succeeded in controlling the situation in Umm Rawaba and defeated the rebels," Saad added late Saturday.