Sudan’s air defences shot down “flying object” over military area: SAF

May 6, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) shot down an unidentified flying object near a military base in Khartoum state on late Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday at 10:45 pm the Martyr Mukhtar airbase received a notification from radar stations that a shiny body flying at a low altitude was detected over the Wadi Sayidna military area, said SAF spokesperson al-Sawarmi Khaled in a statement released on Wednesday afternoon.

The spokesperson said the anti-aircraft crews hit the target, after verifying that there was no civilian airplane navigating in the area.

He further said some debris of the flying object had fallen on the al-Hitana and al-Waha neighbourhoods.

The belated statement came after unconfirmed reports that an Israeli military airplane attempted to carry out a new attack on the Sudanese military targets. But Tel Aviv denied the reports.

“We do not know about a downed drone in Sudan,” An Israeli security official told Israel Public Radio on Wednesday afternoon following reports saying the Sudanese army shot down an Israeli drone.
Al-Sawarmi said they did not yet identified the flying body hit on Tuesday evening.

He pointed to ongoing work to identify the nature of the target, stressing the situation is stable and nobody was hurt.

A senior military source told Reuters that, in Tuesday’s incident, two missiles followed by artillery were fired towards “an unidentified flying object”.

“Nothing has yet been found …The search is still ongoing at the site,” he added.

Witnesses in Omdurman said they heard loud explosions from outside the city late on Tuesday. The area is home to several military installations.

Khartoum has accused Israel of launching strikes on targets in Sudan several times in recent years, although Israel refuses to comment on the claims.

(ST)