Sudan warplanes launch attack on major south Sudanese town

Sudanese warplanes launched a major attack on a South Sudanese town on Thursday, with five bombs dropped on the capital of the oil-producing Unity border state, Southern officials said.

“They dropped bombs in Bentiu town ̶ apparently they were aiming for a bridge,” South Sudan’s deputy information minister Atem Yaak Atem told AFP.

Bombs were dropped at dawn targeting a strategic bridge on the edge of Bentiu, which lies some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the frontier, on the third straight day of violence.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir accused South Sudan of “choosing the path of war,”

“Our brothers in South Sudan have chosen the path of war, implementing plans dictated by foreign parties who supported them during the civil war,” Bashir told reporters, referring to decades of conflict before the South’s independence last year.

“War is not in the interest of either South Sudan or Sudan but, unfortunately, our brothers in the South are thinking neither of the interests of Sudan or of South Sudan,” he added.

Meanwhile, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir rejected international calls to pull out troops from the contested oil-producing Heglig area, but said he did not want war with Khartoum.

Kiir, in a speech to parliament, also threatened to send troops into the disputed Abyei oil region ̶ held by Khartoum and patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers ̶ if Sudan did not withdraw its forces from the area.

“I will not order the forces to withdraw from Heglig,” Kiir told parliament, despite calls by the African Union and United Nations to pull out from the region seized from Khartoum’s army earlier this week.

The latest clashes threaten to bring the two former foes closer to an outright war, after parliaments in both countries on Wednesday urged their respective citizens to take up defenses.

“Our position is not to go to war except in self-defense” Atem said, adding that there were no reported casualties from Thursday’s raid.

Atem said the bridge was near a United Nations compound, slightly outside the town and on the road leading north to the frontline.

Khartoum vows to react

Khartoum has vowed to react with “all means” against a three-pronged attack it said South Sudanese forces had launched against its South Kordofan state, including the Heglig oil field.

A statement on Khartoum’s official SUNA news agency warned of “destruction” in South Sudan.

“I think they want to disable communication and transport ̶ they said they were going to destroy the South,” Atem added.

The African Union, United Nations and the United States have called for restraint and voiced deep concern at the escalation of violence which saw South Sudan’s army seize the Heglig oil region.

In response, Khartoum has pulled out of AU-led crisis talks aimed at resolving the protracted dispute over oil, border demarcation, contested areas and citizenship issues.

Disputed town

Sudan’s attack came after a day of fierce fighting and after troops from South Sudan captured Heglig that is claimed by Sudan, whose troops withdrew under the onslaught, a Sudanese government minister said
Wednesday.

The military advance by South Sudan into territory it claims but which is internationally recognized as Sudan’s brought swift condemnation from the United States and Britain. Both nations, along with the U.N. Security Council, urged South Sudan to withdraw from the town of Heglig and condemned the bombings of South Sudan territory by Sudan.

Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, said he had filed a complaint to the Security Council condemning the “heinous attack” on Heglig and demanding South Sudan’s withdrawal.

“We will decide to retaliate, and retaliate severely, deep inside South Sudan” if the Security Council doesn't address the situation, Ali Osman told reporters. He added, “We know they are a very fragile state, they have a lot of problems inside. We do not want to escalate this war, which they started, because it is not going serve the interest of either country.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was “alarmed by the escalation in fighting” and said both countries should withdraw their forces from each other’s’ territory.

Heglig lies along the ill-defined border between the two African nations and has been the focal point of nearly two weeks of clashes between their armies. The region is home to oil facilities that account for around half of Sudan's oil production, a critical source of income for the country's flagging economy.