Khartoum points finger at Tel Aviv for missile attack
It is clear that what we saw that night were guided missiles or aircrafts.”
Initially opinion was divided. While Sudanese government officials blamed a fire in the factory, locals described seeing illuminated objects flying through the night sky. We saw the lights before the explosion was heard,” said a resident of South Khartoum, describing the night of October 23. It is clear that what we saw that night were guided missiles or aircrafts.”
A day later the Sudanese government pointed the finger at Israel. Speaking at a press conference, government spokesman Dr. Ahmed Bilal said Israel’s involvement could be proved by the code number and place and date of manufacture found on the fragments from the rockets.
According to a statement by government agencies, two citizens were killed, Hassan Ali Kouwa, 45 and Fateh Mohammad Yousuf, 21, and an unspecified number of injured people were admitted to hospital.
A man in his destroyed living room holding what he says is part of the rocket that hit the Al-Yarmook military plant, October 24.
Bilal said the air attack was carried out by four aircrafts which used high-tech jamming and came from the East. Sudan retains the right to retaliate at any time”, he said, adding that the incident demonstrates Israel’s arrogance”.
The Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak declined to comment on the Sudanese accusations. I have nothing to say with respect to this matter,” he told the Israeli Jerusalem Post.
However, the Haaretz newspaper wrote that Israel had been informed that the Yarmouk produces military equipment which ends up in the hands of Palestinian factions, and maybe used by these factions to strike Israel, prompting Israel to hit the plant as one of the most important centres of illegal arms smuggling to the Palestinian resistance”.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper’s political analyst Ronnie Shaked told the BBC that both Sudan and Iran support Hamas. Hamas launched 80 rockets against Israel on Wednesday. Surely these missiles do not come from underground, they come from Sudan and Iran.”
I have nothing to say with respect to this matter.”
Reports say Israel believes Sudan is used as an arms-smuggling route, through which weapons are allegedly transported to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip via Sudan’s northern neighbour Egypt.
International commentators concluded that the 1,000-mile attack could be interpreted as a warning to Iran about its nuclear programme.
The Akhbar Al-Yaoum newspaper quoted military spokesperson Col. Sawarmi Khaled on Thursday explaining that the aircraft tried to camouflage their route, first back north before turning east.
Sudan’s UN Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told the Security Council that four Israeli aircraft entered Sudan’s airspace and attacked the factory. Calling the incident a blatant violation of the concept of peace and security”, he urged the council to condemn Israel.
The Yarmook Military Industries is part of the Military Industrialisation Corporation, which oversees a number of other factories. The factory’s output is not solely for the military industry.
A blatant violation of the concept of peace and security.”
A number of prominent figures oversaw the construction of the plant in the mid-nineties such as engineers Jamal Zmgan and Imad Hussein, while Salah Goshm, a former intelligence officer oversaw the administration of the factory.
The factory manufactures conventional weapons. According to a military expert quoted in Al-Sudani this factory made Sudan Africa’s third ranking place, in terms of war industrialisation after Egypt and South Africa. He said that 40 percent of the capacity of the Sudanese army’s weaponry was produced at Al-Yarmouk.
It was planned that Al-Yarmouk would move outside the boundaries of the state of Khartoum. Khartoum was the scene of two previous explosions, one the Al-Shajara factory and the other close to the general headquarters. No accusation of the involvement of foreign parties was made at the time.
Israel has been accused of carrying out military operations inside the Sudanese territory during the past five years, including targeting two convoys near the international border between northeastern Sudan and Egypt and two cars in the coastal city of Port Sudan.
Israel has always refused to comment on theses accusations.
