Darfur rebels report 250 Sudanese soldiers dead in capture of garrison town

CAIRO, July 14 (AFP) — The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a separatist rebel movement in the Darfur regions of western Sudan, said Monday it seized the garrison town of Al-Teinah in fighting which left 250 army soldiers dead.

“SLM forces have seized control of the garrison of Al-Teinah and killed about 250 government soldiers after fierce fighting,” said Mani Arkoi Minawi, secretary general of the movement, in a phone call to AFP in Cairo.

Forteen military vehicles were captured, he said, while the SLM’s losses were only one dead and seven wounded.

The governor of North Darfur state said on Saturday that 15 Sudanese soldiers and 30 rebels were killed when Darfur separatists attacked the border garrison town.

About 200 rebels, accompanied by armed bandits, launched an assault on Al-Teinah, Osman Yousuf Kubur told reporters. He said the army troops chased the rebels out of town and destroyed a number of their vehicles.

A group of the rebels crossed the border and engaged in fighting with Chadian army troops, Kubur said.

The SLM has since late February 2003 carried out several attack on government forces in the remote and partly desert regions of Darfur, which lies on the border with Chad.