Israel Bombs Convoy Of Iranian Trucks In Sudan
Mar 26, 2009 35 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
“It was a genocide, committed by US forces.” When asked how he knew the forces were American, Rabie responded: “We don’t differentiate between the US and Israel. They are all one.”
US officials have confirmed that the IAF did bomb a convoy of trucks in Sudan in January that was believed to be carrying arms for eventual delivery to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The New York Times on Friday quoted two officials as saying that the air strike was part of Israel’s efforts to stop the flow of weapons to Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.
The two officials, who the newspaper said are privy to classified intelligence assessments, said Iran had been involved in the effort to smuggle weapons to the Strip, noting intelligence reports indicating that an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards operative had gone to Sudan to coordinate the effort.
Sudanese government spokesman Rabie A. Atti said reports of the strike were emerging now because it took time to fully probe the attack. He also said that “more than 100 people” had been killed in the air raid, not the 39 reported Thursday by CBS News.
He denied trucks that were bombed were carrying weapons. “I’ve heard this allegation, but it’s not true,” he said. “It was a genocide, committed by US forces.”
When asked how he knew the forces were American, Rabie responded: “We don’t differentiate between the US and Israel. They are all one.”
The newspaper quoted Vince Crawley, a spokesman for the United States Africa Command, as saying that said US forces had not bombed Sudan. “The US military has not conducted any airstrikes, fired any missiles or undertaken any combat operations in or around Sudan since October 2008, when US Africa Command formally became responsible for US military action in Africa,” he said.
The US officials who described the Israeli role declined to be identified because they were discussing classified information and were not authorized to speak for the Obama administration.
One American military official said the January strike was one of a series of Israeli attacks against Gaza-bound arms shipments.
Shlomo Brom, a retired general at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said it would be “very logical” to assume that Israel would have wanted to bomb a weapons convoy in Sudan. “It fits exactly with the pattern of how Israel operates,” he said, according to the Times.
However, the New York Times cited one former official as saying that the exact origin of the arms was unclear.
