Egyptian army shelled arms-laden vehicles on borders with Sudan: report

March 13, 2011 (CAIRO) – The Egyptian army has shelled seven vehicles laden with arms and ammunition on the borders with Sudan, as reported by an Egyptian satellite broadcaster.

The presenter of the “first edition” program broadcast on Sunday by the privately-owned Egyptian satellite TV Dream said that the Egyptian army had used all methods to destroy seven vehicles containing large amounts of arms and ammunition on the border areas with Sudan.

The report did not say when the bombing took place.

According to the presenter Ahmad Al-Maslamani, the seven vehicles were in Egypt’s side of the borders when spotted by the country’s border-control guards. The presenter said that the details of this operation would be released soon.

The reported incident brings back to memory an airstrike that occurred in January 2009 in a desert area near the Mount Al-Sha’anoon in Northwest of Port Sudan city in eastern Sudan when Israeli warplanes bombed a convoy believed to be smuggling arms to Hamas movement in Gaza strip.

The attack left an unknown number of casualties though some figures put the death toll at 29 people.

A US diplomatic cable leaked this year by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks revealed that the Sudanese government had at first suspected it was US warplanes that conducted the airstrike.

But Sudanese officials including President Al-Bashir later acknowledged that it was Israeli warplanes that carried out the attack.

Egypt along with the US and Israel have in recent years stepped up efforts to prevent arms from reaching Gaza strip.

(ST)