by Eli Leon, Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Fire engulfs the Yarmouk
ammunition factory in Khartoum, Wednesday.
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Photo credit: Reuters |
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A mysterious explosion at a state-owned
military factory complex rocked the southern reaches of the Sudanese
capital Khartoum early Wednesday, prompting the Sudanese government once
again to blame Israel for violating its sovereignty and attacking its
facilities.
Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Belal
Osman told reporters on Wednesday that four aircraft hit the Yarmouk
complex before dawn, setting off a huge blast that caused an explosion
and fire that killed two people.
"Four planes coming from the east bombed the
Yarmouk industrial complex," Belal said. "They used sophisticated
technology [to penetrate Sudanese airspace and avoid radars].” Belal
said that parts of the complex which produced "conventional weapons"
were completely destroyed, while other parts were only partially
damaged.
"We reserve our right to respond in a time and
place of our choosing," Belal added. He admitted that Sudan lacked the
military means equivalent to Israel's, but said it reserved the right to
respond with the means at its disposal. The minister stressed that the
factory was not producing prohibited weapons, had no underground or
hidden sections, and that Sudan had the national right to produce
conventional weapons.
Around 300 people gathered at the courtyard of a government building where the Sudanese cabinet was in an emergency meeting, shouting, "Death to Israel" and "Remove Israel from the map."
Around 300 people gathered at the courtyard of a government building where the Sudanese cabinet was in an emergency meeting, shouting, "Death to Israel" and "Remove Israel from the map."
"Israel is a country of injustice that needs
to be deterred," Vice President Ali Osman Taha, standing next to
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, told the crowd. "This attack only
strengthens our firmness."
Osman said that Sudan intends to file an
official complaint to the UN Security Council (UNSC), and also told the
BBC that his country is planning more decisive action against Israeli
interests saying they are legitimate targets.
The minister of media said in his press conference in
Khartoum that 60 percent of Al-Yarmook ammunition factory was completely
destroyed while 40 percent was partially destroyed. He revealed that
the government had plans to relocate the factory to an area outside of
the capital "but the Israelis knew this and decided to attack
preemptively," the AllAfrica.com website reported.
According to the Al Hayat newspaper, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum shut its door on Tuesday shortly before the attack, prompting speculation that the Americans had prior knowledge of the planned attack on the weapons factory and feared a response on its mission.
According to the Al Hayat newspaper, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum shut its door on Tuesday shortly before the attack, prompting speculation that the Americans had prior knowledge of the planned attack on the weapons factory and feared a response on its mission.
Belal, referring to a 2009 attack on an arms
convoy in a Red Sea province in eastern Sudan, said, "We are now certain
that this flagrant attack was authorized by the same State of Israel.
The main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any
development there and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty."
Israel believes Sudan is a conduit for arms
shipments through Egypt to Gaza's Hamas rulers, as well as other
terrorist groups operating in the region. Israel does not comment
officially on the issue.
Belal said the complex produced conventional weapons, and that "Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel."
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council,
Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman called the attack a
"blatant violation" of the U.N. charter and called for condemnation from
the world body.
Belal said an analysis of rocket debris and other material had shown that the attack was engineered by Israel.
Israeli officials did not respond to requests
for comment on Sudan's allegations. When asked by Israel's Channel 2
News about Sudan's accusations, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: "There
is nothing I can say about this subject."
Amos Gilad, head of the Political-Diplomatic
Bureau at the Defense Ministry, refused to comment on Israeli
involvement in the explosion, but touched on Sudan's involvement in
aiding and abetting terrorist organizations.
"There are many versions to this story and
there is no point in getting into it," Gilad said. "The flames are
obvious, because they came from that place. Regarding Sudan's role, it
is a dangerous terror state, and regarding what happened there exactly
time is needed to understand it," he said.
While not confirming nor denying reports that
Israel attacked the Khartoum factory, Vice Prime Minister Moshe [Bogey]
Ya'alon said Israel "would not shed a tear" over the reported attack.
Shabtai Shavit, former Mossad chief told
Israel Radio that Sudan has become a thoroughfare for Iranian weapons
from the sea into Africa and the Middle East, including Egypt and Gaza.
Sudan is a country with a weak unstable government with many regions
under the control of tribal warlords, so it is easier for Iran to work
there.
If Israel was indeed behind the attack, the
distance to the weapons factory in Khartoum is greater than the distance
to the underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility in Iran.
The powerful blast at the complex sent exploding ammunition flying through the air, causing panic among residents.
Abdelgadir Mohammed, 31, who lives near the
factory, said a loud roar of what they believed was a plane prompted him
and his brother to leave their house around midnight to check it out.
"At first we thought it was more than one
plane. Then we thought it was a plane crashing because of how sharp the
sound was," Mohammed said. "Then we saw a flash of light, and after it
came a really loud sound. It was an explosion."
He said he heard three distinct explosions.
Mohammed said the explosion caused panic among
the residents of the heavily populated, low-income neighborhood. Many
fled to open spaces, fearing their homes were collapsing. He said
ammunition flew out of the factory into the air and fell on homes.
Thick smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters fought the blaze for hours.
In New York, Sudan's U.N. Ambassador,
Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, called on the U.N. Security Council to
condemn the attack, accusing Israel of meddling in its internal affairs
and providing support to rebel groups.
"Four Israeli airplanes invaded our air space
and perpetrated this heinous attack," Osman told a Security Council
session on Darfur. "We reject such aggression and expect the Security
Council to condemn this attack because it is a blatant violation of the
concepts of peace and security and of the principles and purposes of the
charter and United Nation and it jeopardizes peace and security in the
entire region and not just in Sudan."
The Cairo-based Arab League said it was
closely following the fallout after the attack. Deputy Arab League
Secretary-General Ahmed bin Helli said Sudanese officials were in touch
with the League and had provided initial reports about Israel's alleged
involvement. "We are working to verify them," he said.
Sudanese activists on social media websites
criticized the government for placing a factory with such large
quantities of ammunition in a residential area.
Meanwhile, opposition elements in Sudan
claimed Wednesday that the weapons factory belonged to Iran's
Revolutionary Guard. Sudanese government officials in the past have not
specifically denied that Iran has military factories in their country,
and foreign media outlets have reported that Revolutionary Guard troops
have trained the Sudanese military.
The independent Sudanese newspaper Rai
al-Shabaab revealed in 2010 that Iran had built a covert facility inside
the Sudanese Military Industrial Complex near Khartoum. The factory,
according to the same report, manufactured arms for terrorist
organizations working with Iran, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas in
the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon and radical Islamist groups in
Yemen and Somalia.
Al-Shabaab was shut down by government
authorities following the report and the paper's editor was arrested and
charged with espionage. A report in Foreign Policy magazine in 2010
examining Iranian activity in Sudan claimed that Israel knew of the
factory's existence.
Photographs from the explosion area,
meanwhile, showed weapons parts scattered about, including metal
fragments from 122mm rockets and larger ones, such as the Fajr-3 rocket
manufactured by Iran.
The Yarmouk weapons complex was built in 1996.
Sudan prided itself in having a way to produce its own ammunition and
weapons despite international sanctions.
Yarmouk is one of two known state-owned weapons manufacturing facilities in the Sudanese capital.
Jonah Leff of the Geneva-based Small Arms
Survey told The Associated Press that the location of the two factories
was "certainly a hazard" to Khartoum's population if the weapons inside
were not properly maintained or secured.
A September report from the Small Arms Survey
said there was evidence from weapons packaging found in Darfur and in
South Kordofan that arms and ammunition from China were being exported
to Yarmouk and then transported to Kenya and Tanzania.
Leff said that although the Small Arms Survey had
documented Sudanese military stocks of Iranian weapons and ammunition,
there was no evidence that Iranian weapons were being assembled or
manufactured in the two Khartoum factories.
Eli Leon, Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6202
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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