Sudan accuses Israel over Khartoum military factory blast

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Sudanese government says it believes Israel was responsible for a huge explosion at a military factory in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday, October 23, according to BBC News.

Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said four Israeli planes attacked the factory and two people were killed. Israel has not commented.

Sudan has blamed Israel for such attacks in the past.

Correspondents say Israel believes weapons are being smuggled through the region to Gaza. Fire engulfed the Yarmouk plant and nearby buildings after the explosion, with flames visible over a wide area.

In April 2011, Khartoum held Israel responsible for an air strike that killed two people in a car near the city of Port Sudan. Israel, again, did not comment on the incident.

Israel was also blamed for a strike on a convoy in north-eastern Sudan in 2009, but neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Speaking to reporters in Khartoum, Sudan's Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman said: "We think Israel did the bombing.

"We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose."

Mr Osman said four radar-evading aircraft that "appeared to come from the east" had attacked the Yarmouk plant.

He said that evidence pointing to Israel had been found among remnants of the explosives and that Sudan's cabinet would hold an urgent meeting at 20:00 (17:00 GMT).

Mr Osman said the factory made "traditional weapons".

"The attack destroyed part of the compound infrastructure, killed two people inside and injured another who is in serious condition," he added.

A spokesman for the Israeli army, Avikhai Adraie, told the BBC's Arabic service that Israel had no comment on the accusation.

Earlier, Sudanese armed forces spokesman Col al-Sawarmi Khalid said civil defence forces had contained the fire and that investigations were under way.

Witnesses reported seeing two or three fires with dense smoke and intermittent flashes of white light.

In 1998 the US launched a missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, alleging that it was making materials for chemical weapons.

Sudan denied the allegation, insisting that the US had attacked a factory that manufactured anti-malaria medicines and veterinary products, in defiance of international laws.