The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: EC on May 26, 2013, 08:22:48 pm
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Reuters: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-attack-army-sudans-top-oil-producing-state-200138935.html
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Rebels with tanks attacked an army base in Sudan's top oil-producing state of South Kordofan on Sunday, and both sides claimed victory.
The Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), an umbrella of insurgent groups which aims to topple President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has stepped up attacks in the past month, trying to force the army to fight on fronts hundreds of miles apart to drain stretched state resources.
Sudan has accused neighbor South Sudan of backing rebels in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile border states. Juba denies this, but diplomats say the allegation is credible.
The violence has strained ties between the nations, which came close to all-out war in border clashes last year and have struggled to put an end to tensions that have hampered their economies and oil production since the South seceded in 2011.
Sudan's military spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid said the army had repulsed a rebel attack on the base in the area of Dandur, east of South Kordofan's capital Kadugli.
"The armed forces killed more than 70 rebels," he told state news agency SUNA. He said the army had seized tanks from the insurgents.
More at link.
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All the more reason for us here in the US to go full throttle with our drilling/fracking and keystone pipeline.