A Sudanese official says foreign warplanes carried out a deadly attack
on weapons smugglers as they drove through Sudan earlier this year.
Sudan's
state minister for highways, Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem, has told various
media that the convoy was bombed in eastern Sudan, and that the attack
killed a number of Sudanese, Ethiopians, and Eritreans.
The U.S. television network CBS, which first reported the attack on Wednesday, put the death toll from the bombing at 39.
CBS
reports that Israeli aircraft carried out the attack after learning the
weapons were destined for the Gaza Strip, where Israel had been
fighting the Palestinian group Hamas.
However, al-Jazeera television and Egyptian newspapers say the United States was responsible for the air strike.
Neither
U.S. nor Israeli officials have commented on the reports. But in a
speech Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel will
strike everywhere it can to maintain deterrence.
Sudan's Foreign Minister Deng Alor told reporters in Cairo Wednesday that he had no information on any attack.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
