News Article by REUTERS posted on August 28, 2008 at 21:50:00: EST (-5 GMT)
|
Darfur rebels claim downing of Sudan drone UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Darfur rebels claimed to have shot down a Sudanese military spy plane in a wild mountainous area of the war-torn region on Thursday. A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army told AFP from London that its forces shot down the unmanned drone -- which appeared to be Chinese -- in eastern Jebel Marra, in West Darfur State. "The movement warns the Sudanese government against targeting the movement through both militias or espionage," Mahgoub Hussein said. A Sudanese army spokesman said that a military plane without a pilot made an emergency landing at east of Jebel Marra and was unable to say whether the aircraft was shot down. "So far, we haven't reached the place where the plane landed to know whether it was shot or not," the spokesman told AFP in Khartoum. The incident came two days after hijackers, who officials said claimed to be from Darfur, diverted a Sudanese passenger jet to Libya and demanded to fly to Paris. The attackers, who were quoted as saying they belonged to the Sudan Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris, surrendered to Libyan authorities at a remote desert airport on Wednesday. The movement has fractured into multiple groups headed by different field commanders over the more than five years of war in Darfur. The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes the conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed. |