Jerusalem – A government minister in Sudan is accusing the United States Air Force of killing dozens of people in that north African country this past January – but the semi-official American version of the story is very different.
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CBS News national security correspondent David Martin has been told that Israeli aircraft carried out the attack. Israeli intelligence is said to have discovered that weapons were being trucked through Sudan, heading north toward Egypt, whereupon they would cross the Sinai Desert and be smuggled into Hamas-held territory in Gaza.
In January, the U.S. signed an agreement with Israel that calls for an international effort to stop arms smuggling into Gaza. Hamas was showering rockets on Israeli towns, and Israel had responded by invading Gaza. More than 1,000 Palestinians were reportedly killed in the December-January war, and 13 Israelis lost their lives.
In the airstrike in Sudan – said to have been “in a desert area northwest of Port Sudan city, near Mount al-Sha’anoon,” according to SudanTribune.com – 39 people riding in 17 trucks were reportedly killed.
The first government official in Sudan to talk about it was the state minister for highways, Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem, who said: “A major power bombed small trucks carrying arms – burning all of them. It killed Sudanese, Eritreans, and Ethiopians and injured others.”
According to SudanTribune.com, the airstrike was an “embarrassment” to Sudan’s government, and it discussed the matter with Egypt’s government – allied with the U.S. on most issues – “to gather more information to formulate a response.”
The Web site added: “American and Israeli diplomats said the [January] agreement includes intelligence coordination to prevent arms from Iran from entering Gaza, maritime efforts to identify ships carrying weaponry, and the sharing of U.S. and European technologies to discover and prevent the use of weapons-smuggling tunnels.”
If Israeli airplanes carried out the attack in Sudan, it would suggest that there is a shadow war against Hamas and its weapons sources that is wider than the Israeli or U.S. government has revealed.
I just hope the israelis are not putting on shoes bigger then their foot size
It’s not the first time Israeli planes have gone to Africa, and I’m not talking Egypt.
2,000,000 dead and 4 million refugees in Sudan civil war don’t mean a thing. 39 people on arms laden trucks killed by Jews, now there’s a front page news story.
Anachnu Im zahal keep up the good work lock and load
Hey Sudan! You don’t like your drug money disappearing? Stop sending drugs and nothing will disappear. They could care less about the 39 killed. They are much more saddened by the drug monies they will now lose.
Three weeks ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. This Israeli strike is the perfect way for him to hide from the headlines, but the truth will come out anyway. The people in that truck caravan were transporting drugs. Bad things happen to bad people.
Hey Mr. al-Bashir, it’s not nice to murder millions of people, did you know that? It shows you didn’t learn how to behave properly. Now, now Mr. Bashir, please be a good boy, and when you’re in prison, you better learn how to drop the soap 10 times every day for many years. Bye, bye you murderer..
Thank God it was only weapons and not foot baths that were destroyed.
who gives a peep about sudan they’re a backwards terror state.