Sudan says top Darfur rebels killed, 20 vehicles seized

KHARTOUM, March 2 (AFP) — Government troops fighting rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region have killed several of their field commanders, captured others and seized 20 of their vehicles, a state governor was quoted as saying Tuesday.

Osman Yusuf Kibir, the governor of North Darfur State, told the official newspaper Al-Anbaa that government troops repelled rebels attacking his home village of Al-Twaishah and the nearby village of Taweelah on Saturday and Sunday.

The troops killed between six and seven field commanders, captured others, and seized more than 20 vehicles while destroying others before the remaining rebels fled, he said.

The governor said he believed that Khatir Toar al-Khala, a prominent rebel leader, was among the dead.

He said the rebels destroyed nine houses of his relatives, the local police and water utility offices and the Al-Twaishah hospital but there were no casualties among the villagers.

“All parts of Darfur are now free of the rebels except for some pockets,” said Kibir, adding that the rebels resorted to “hit-and-run methods of fighting”.

He said he believed that a radical solution to the Darfur problem “will be found only with reinforcing the armed forces and intensifying the military pressure to reach dialogue.”

A rebellion erupted a year ago in the states of North Darfur, West Darfur and South Darfur over allegations the government had neglected to develop the impoverished region neighboring Chad.

It was not immediately clear which group the rebels belonged to.

Darfur’s rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance — are seeking negotiations with Khartoum along the lines of those being held with the southern rebel movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, on sharing wealth and power.